Promise of Forever
by darkmagic-luvr
Summary: Kol had memories in his head; of a girl he'd never met and of things he'd never done. It hurt Anna a little more every day not being near him, by being near him. Seven hundred years of running had to have a finish line, even if it killed them. KolAnna
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningcock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note:** I was updating this fic and the site decided it would be more fun to replace the first chapter with the second one, but it's here now! Thank you so much to Mark Question for letting me now what was up, I'm so grateful.

* * *

He had memories that weren't his.

And he didn't know they were there until he saw her.

One minute he was minding his own business at the bar, drinking away the day and the boredom, and the next he was looking up after feeling the strangest sensation crawling up his spine. He didn't remember much about being human, but he remembered the feeling of someone staring at him, the feeling that he was being watched and hunted. He had spent over a thousand years as a vampire being the one to _cause_ that kind of feeling, so it was with great unpleasantness that Kol turned his head around to find the source of his discomfort.

And what he found wasn't anything special.

She was just sitting at one of the lower tables in the dining area, by herself with a glass of water and a closed book lying forgotten next to her hand. She was staring at him; completely uncaring that he had caught her, and didn't move a muscle when he caught her eye. Kol raised an eyebrow at her; she licked her lips and looked away.

Kol's upper lip pulled upward slightly in confusion and disdain, turning back to the bar and back to his alcohol and downing the remaining contents of his glass in one go. The moment he set his glass back down onto the bar he remembered; he remembered the feel of lovely pale skin beneath his hands, the smell of spiced tea, the contrast of black hair fanning out across a white pillow.

But it wasn't his memory.

The sound of glass breaking startled him back to reality; he glanced around, breathing hard, only to catch the scent of _his_ blood in the air. Kol looked down at his hand, covered in blood and pieces of glass. He winced slightly at the sight, turning his hand over, palm up, and pulling a rather long sliver of glass out of his hand.

He held the lone shard up to his eye level, rotating his wrist and watching it catch the light. With a start he realized that the girl sitting at the table behind him was the girl in his memory.

The memory that wasn't his.

He twisted around, zeroing in on the table she had been in seconds ago. It was empty, glass of water still untouched, her book left behind. Kol's eyes narrowed, pushing himself away from the bar and out of his chair. He ignored the concerned looks he got from some of the wait staff over his hand as he crossed the room to the table she'd been seated at; his hand ghosting across the cover of her book.

"Hey." Kol looked up and around, raising his eyebrow at the human - _Matt, was it?_ - who'd gotten his attention. Matt nodded casually at him. "You lookin' for Anna?"

Kol blinked, unmoving. "Who?"

"Uh...Anna. The girl who was sitting here."

He raised an eyebrow. "I suppose." Matt shifted uncomfortable from one foot to the other, but to his credit that was about as phased as he got from Kol's unwavering stare.

"She's staying in the hotel a couple blocks away." Kol frowned, genuinely surprised by the freely given information.

"And you know this how?"

"She's friends with Jeremy Gilbert." Ew. Nonetheless, Kol shrugged and turned away, feeling that was thank you enough; he left the Grill without another word, hesitating for a moment outside the door as he decided which way to go. But what was the point in even thinking about it? The images in his head just then had been nothing but random, and unimportant.

With that in mind, Kol turned on his heel and started in the direction of home. It was only a little past noon, and while the town was bustling, it was still far too slow for him. They were setting up for Founder's Day in the park as he was walking by, something that both nauseated and amused him. Nik would love it, for no other reason than to make a mockery of their town's little traditions.

_"I hate it here."_

Kol's head snapped around, his breath hitching in his throat as he stopped dead in his tracks. That voice had breathed directly in his ear, it had been real and...Kol reached up to run his hand across the back of his neck, unnerved. It had been a woman's voice, soft and almost childlike; it had sent shivers down his spine and it was...

It was _real_.

He had no idea how he got home so quickly, but he was sure it had something to do with the massive panic attack he'd had in town. Slamming the front door shut, Kol followed the sounds of his brothers to the living room where Finn and Nik were sitting together.

Playing video games.

"The hell?" muttered Kol, slowing his walk down as he rounded the couch. Nik glanced at him, quirking his eyebrows in greeting and going right back to his game.

"I'm teaching Finn about Halo."

"Yes apparently this is essential to functioning in the 21st century."

Kol snorted, dropping into the couch. He was silent for a moment, debating on whether or not this would be something he should tell his family. But it wasn't that big of a deal...no not really, he'd just been hallucinating. That's perfectly normal.

"Something's going on," said Kol slowly, watching Nik and Finn play video games. They were ignoring him, which he hated, but this was important and he needed them to hear him. His eyes narrowed at their backs. "Are you listening to me?"

"No."

"Not in the least, baby brother."

Kol rolled his eyes, irritated, tapping his fingers against the back of the couch impatiently as Nik and Finn went back to their game. "Do I know someone named Anna?"

Nik barely spared a glance back at him, but Finn snorted with interest, sliding to the edge of his seat as he continued playing. "With your attention span, who knows?"

This was true. It was quite possible that he'd met her in the past and she just hadn't stood out enough to leave an impression on him. But why would he be so fixated on her now? And no matter how hard he tried to think he did _not_ remember her. The images he'd seen and the voice he had heard had all felt like memories, but they were not connected to anything else. They were suspended.

"Annabelle, then."

The reaction he received this time was on the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Finn and Niklaus turned their heads to look at him, abandoning their game to stare at him with identical expressions that Kol couldn't name. Then they glanced at each other and Finn was the one first to shrug.

"Not that I know of. Niklaus?"

"Can't say it sounds familiar." Kol stared at them, his lips parted in disbelief.

They were lying to him. Straight to his face. But instead of being angry, like he figured he _should_ be, all Kol felt was confused as to why. There shouldn't be any reason to lie to him, especially if there was nothing the matter .He stood, shaking his head.

"Whatever. When you both feel like telling me the truth I'll be in my room."

Finn and Klaus watched Kol go with baited breath until he was out of earshot before Finn looked at his younger brother worriedly. "You don't think-?"

"No, he can't be."

"But if he is..."

Klaus' eyes narrowed in thought. "It shouldn't be too hard to find her."

Anna brushed her hair behind her ear as she made her way into her hotel room, flipping on the lights and tossing her bag onto the table near the door. She was exhausted. Between helping Jeremy with the Founder's Day float and running into Kol...God, she hadn't expected to see him ever again let alone anywhere near Mystic Falls.

She shook her head firmly, refusing to think about Kol or anything related to him. It wouldn't cause her anything but pain getting involved with him again. Besides...it wasn't like he even recognized her-

"Annabelle."

She froze, her eyes going wide as she recognized the voice behind her. She didn't dare turn around, too afraid to see what his expression was and too afraid to know what he was going to do to her. But she couldn't help it, she _had_ to know. Anna turned slowly, her fingernails digging into her palm to prevent her from bolting like a rabbit. If she still had a heart it would be thundering against her ribcage. And even worse, he wasn't alone.

"Klaus," she said, returning the greeting softly. Her eyes flickered to his brother. "Hello, Finn."

"We heard you were in town and thought we would come by and say hello," said Klaus, his tone friendly enough. Anna stepped back, leaning away from him.

"No you didn't."

"I'm hurt, Annabelle-"

"_No_, you're _not_."

"-that you would think so low of me," Klaus continued as if she hadn't spoken. His eyes narrowed slightly, the corner of his mouth quirking. "Can't a man say hello to his sister-in-law without being accused of trying to kill her?"

Anna stopped, her nostrils flaring angrily as her throat tightened. "Don't call me that."

"Then you do know why we're here," interrupted Finn, stepping in front of Klaus and advancing on Anna. She backed away quickly, stumbled when the back of her knees hit the edge of her bed.

"I didn't know he was here," she whispered desperately. "I'm _sorry_-"

"We know, Annabelle," said Finn gently, reaching out to help her to her feet. His hand lingered against her arm for a moment before he stepped away. "But we love our brother, and this is for the best."

"You know you can't kill me..." said Anna hoarsely. "Not without-"

"We're not going to _kill_ you, Anna," grossed Klaus, shaking his head like she was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever come across. "We just you to understand that you need to _stay away _from Kol."

"I know better than anyone," snapped Anna. "Okay? At least _he_ doesn't have to remember, I have to_ live_ with this-!"

"Shh, Annabelle," soothed Finn gently, placing his hand on her shoulder and stilling her. "No need to make a fuss. We just wanted to say hello."

Anna shook her head. "You shouldn't have undaggered him, Klaus."

Klaus rolled his eyes, grumbling. "That wasn't exactly my choice." he sighed, gesturing to Finn and heading for the door. "But I apologize for not alerting you about his...revival."

Anna wrapped her arms around her waist, nodding and following the two Originals to the door. "I can try my best to stay out of town, but I have friends here," she shrugged. "I _was_ here first."

"See that you do," snapped Finn, though not unkindly. Klaus opened the door and allowed his brother to exit first, lingering to look back at Anna seriously.

"It has been a very long time since we've had to go through this, Annabelle," he said. "Don't fuck it up just because you _miss_ him."

Anna's temper snapped, stalking forward, she slammed her hand against the doorframe, blocking Klaus' way out. "I love Kol more than you have ever loved anything," she hissed. Klaus' eyes narrowed at her, his chin rising stubbornly. "I have proof of that, you have a doppelganger. But Elena's not Tatia and you don't suffer whenever you see her, so don't threaten me, _Niklaus_."

Klaus moved closer to her, his eyes flashing dangerously as he bent his head to speak down at her. I could say the same to you, Anna," whispered Klaus. "My brother's happiness is everything to me."

Anna drew back, her eyes wide and tinged with fear. "You would kill us both?"

"If it comes to that," he vowed, placing his arm on Anna's wrist and jerking it free from the door. He pushed her back against the wall and stepped away. "So lovely to see you again, sister."

Klaus swept out without another word, leaving the door hanging open behind him and leaving Anna breathing hard against the wall where he left her. She could feel hot, angry tears collecting in her eyes, and with a strangled cry she slammed the hotel door closed and pressed her forehead against it. Her shoulders shuddered violently as she tried to suppress her tears.

She hated it here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningcock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note:** Thank you everyone who reviewed! It means a lot to me that people are interested in the ship (they're like my baby).

* * *

The drive back to the mansion for Klaus and Finn was silent and tense. They had set aside their differences for a moment, for the sake of their brother, and now they were left with a decision on how to deal with Annabelle. Klaus had quickly and reluctantly told Finn everything Anna had said to him after his older brother had stormed out, his reasoning being that there couldn't be any secrets between them about this. Finn had nodded along, rubbing his forehead in aggravation.

"This has happened before."

It wasn't a question. Klaus sighed, glancing out of the corner of his eye as he drove them home. "Yes."

"Damn it," cursed Finn harshly, hitting the side door with his fist. "Damn it, Niklaus-"

"It was Elijah's fault," snapped Klaus before his brother could go off on him about responsibility. "He left her things around, if you're going to blame someone-"

"Blame Kol," finished Finn. Despite the situation he smirked; Klaus, shaking his head, smirked back.

"Poor Kol," sighed Klaus, adjusting his grip on the steering wheel as he pulled into the drive. "We're going to need to have a talk with the others, get you up to speed on this."

"Cataleya hasn't come back, has she?" asked Finn, turning to stare at Klaus seriously. The hybrid paused; unease filling his chest for a moment before he shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. And thank every piece of luck we have that it hasn't come to that."

Finn climbed out of the car without another word, which Klaus took as silent agreement. Finn had the luxury of not knowing what a complete twat Kol's witch had been; and after his conversation with Annabelle, he had a very nasty feeling that she would be making an appearance this time. Leave it to his brother's wife to become the more stubborn of the two of them. With a dry chuckle, Klaus got out of his car and followed Finn inside, spotting Elijah on his way out and intercepting him.

"Family meeting, brother," said Klaus lightly, snagging Elijah's shirt sleeve and steering him around. Elijah sputtered for a moment in confusion.

"_Family _meeting?"

His tone was appropriate; they hadn't had a family meeting in about five hundred years. Klaus tsk'd. "Yes. Unfortunately it's important. We wouldn't happen to be so lucky that Rebekah hasn't gone out for the night?"

Elijah shook his head, allowing himself to be dragged along by Klaus. Finn had a brandy in his hand when they found him in the study, glaring at the floor with one arm bound across his chest. Elijah made a face at him.

"The two of you have been out together?"

Klaus turned into his brother's shoulder, releasing his hold on his arm and lowering his voice. "That isn't what the meeting's about."

Elijah frowned at him; obviously Kol hadn't said anything about Annabelle since he'd tried to speak to Klaus and Finn, which was just as well. They had no idea how far it had gotten, but Anna seemed sincere enough that this had been their first incident.

"Where's Rebekah?"

Elijah found Rebekah in her room, throwing clothing out of her closet as she decided on what to wear the next day. It was almost endearing, until she turned to Elijah had asked for his gay opinion. Then it wasn't cute so much as annoying, and Elijah had to practically drag her downstairs, his only explanation being a terse, "Family meeting."

"What the bloody hell do we need one of those for?!"

Elijah was asking himself the same question; even more curious was that Kol wasn't present for it. Klaus and Finn were sitting opposite each together, leaning forward and speaking quietly. It was a rare sight; even as humans, Finn and Klaus only got along when Mikael was being particularly violent (it must have been an older brother thing) but other than that Finn mostly kept to himself.

Rebekah jerked her arm out of Elijah's grip and stalked across the room, dropping into the couch beside Finn and folding her arms over her chest with a huff. "What exactly are we discussing at…" she glanced over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. "Eleven o'clock at night?"

"And where's Kol?"

"Yes, why does he get to miss out on this fun little-"

"Shut up, Bekah," said Klaus urgently, glancing at the still open door where Elijah was standing. "Come inside and shut the door, Elijah."

Slightly alarmed, Elijah did as he was told, crossing the room and taking a seat next to Klaus. Finn glanced at each of them in turn, and then took a long pull from his glass. "Annabelle is here."

It took a beat for the other two to react to the news; and even then it was nothing spectacular. Rebekah and Elijah looked at each other warily, Elijah's eyes closing with dread. "Are you sure?"

"We spoke to her just now," said Klaus. He leaned into the corner of the couch casually, tossing his arm over the backrest. Then, "Kol saw her."

Rebekah's curse was a jerk reaction; she stood quickly, running her hands through her hair as her brother's watched. She pace for a moment, calming herself down a bit, before she turned back to glare at Klaus. "And you just let him?"

"What do you expect from me? To police his every movement on the off chance that his wife shows up and triggers the curse?" Rebekah ducked her head, chastened, her mouth open as she tried to even out her temper. Elijah looked at him out of the corner of his eye and, with a sigh, leaned forward to brace his elbows on his knees.

"Will she leave?" Klaus winced.

"We may have…provoked her-" Finn tsk'd. "-_I _may have provoked her. But can you blame me?"

"For a lot of things," snapped Finn, earning sharp looks from Elijah and Klaus. But he shook his head and brought his glass to his lips, mumbling around the rim. "But not for this."

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Elijah, looking to Klaus. "Send Kol away, maybe? He'd go if you asked him too."

Finn answered with a curt shake of his head. "He knows we're lying to him. If we sent him away he would only be more suspicious."

"Where is Kol?" asked Klaus suddenly, frowning at Rebekah for an answer. She hadn't spoken in a while, and she seemed to be handling the news better.

"He's asleep," she said with a shrug. "I saw him earlier, he looked exhausted."

"What do you mean 'he's asleep'?" Kol didn't sleep, not unless he'd committed some sort of debauchery beforehand. Sex, torture, murder then a nap maybe, but he didn't _sleep_.

Elijah dropped his head into his hands, his eyes squeezing shut. "The curse has already been triggered."

"Anna seemed fine when we saw her."

"Just his memories then," concluded Elijah. "But he'll be even more persistent with us for the truth; he'll actively seek Anna out."

"I find it odd that we know our brother so well, and yet we still can't keep them apart," mused Finn. Rebekah adopted a sad, almost longing expression on her face.

"They're soul mates," her brother's groaned and she ignored them. "They're drawn together; and no matter what, they'll find each other."

"Shut _up_, Rebekah."

"That's absolutely ludicrous, have you even met Kol?"

Rebekah stomped her foot angrily, silence her brother's awful opinions. "Why else would that bitch curse them, if they weren't in love? Kol _does _have feelings, you know."

"From what I remember of his relationship with Annabelle, if he were to open up to anyone it would be her," agreed Finn, drumming his fingers against the armrest.

"Speaking of," started Klaus, pointing at Finn. "We need to tell him about last time."

Rebekah glared at him and tsk'd, protesting "But we don't know everything."

"We know enough," said Elijah gently, turning to Finn. "1684, at the River Thames frost fair, you remember those…"

.

Kol was dreaming.

This was odd, because he didn't normally recognize a dream when he was in one. But there he way, standing near his sister on a frozen river, wrapped in furs and wool. He was on the Thames watching colored tents and Londoner's scatter across the frozen water. Rebekah was pale and pink from cold and excitement, gripping his arm tightly as if she were afraid the ice would give way beneath their feet.

The snow had stuck into the tread of their shoes, making walking somewhat of a game, but they managed not to fall over as they made their way through the string of stands selling food and novelties. Elijah had left them for the day, too cold and too occupied with Niklaus' unstable emotions to enjoy the fair, leaving Kol and Rebekah to fend for themselves.

Kol felt something chilling crawl up his spine that had nothing to do with the cold, and he turned his head around, frowning as he looked for the source of his sudden discomfort. There was a very pretty girl with dark, curled hair in grey furs standing at a stall nearby. She wasn't looking at him; it didn't even seem that she had noticed him, which for some reason irked him greatly. He pulled away from Rebekah without a word; leaving her to stand alone to watch the monkeys in the cage she had dragged him over to.

Kol stepped up behind the girl, about a head shorter than he was, and brushed his hand across a fur covered shoulder. She started slightly, spinning her head around to look up at him, her eyes widening when she finally did meet his eyes.

"_Oh!_"

He spoke without thinking, without any conscious notion of why he was saying that particular name or how he knew it in the first place. "Annabelle."

She opened her mouth to speak but instead of hearing her answer, all Kol heard was the sound of wind screaming in his ears. The dream changed abruptly, leaving him standing in a small, circular room with his back pressed against a brick wall near an open window. He could hear the sound of wind screaming against the glass, bitterly cold and (if not for the light candle hanging from the ceiling) dark as hell.

There was wood in his skin; thick, hollow pieces that prevented him from healing. They were everywhere; in his abdomen and across his chest, in his arms, in his legs. Kol's eyes were heavy from lack of sleep, his body held upright only by the vervain soaked ropes binding him to the wall. The firelight above him flickered dangerously as the wind hit the window just right and sent a gust of frigid air inside. He shivered, every nerve in his body on edge.

Kol blinked slowly as the door banged open and Annabelle barged in, her hair flying around her face and shoulders, looking determined and so very scared. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him, her eyes going wide and her lips parting in horror.

"What did she do to you."

Kol shot up in bed, gasping for breath, drenched in cold sweat. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, his fingers coming back covered in ice. He rarely felt confused, but that dream left him with nothing but questions. Throwing back the sheets he was under, Kol sat on the edge of his bed and hung his head, trying to calm his overstimulated nerves. He had never had a dream like that before. And what was worse, he actually _remembered _the fair on the Thames; and he remembered that room as an unused one in the mansion he lived in with his siblings while they'd been in London at the time.

Kol pushed himself out of bed, placing his hand against the wall for support as he tried to recall more details. The only thing he hadn't remembered was Annabelle; that information was brand fucking new. His brother's were lying to him, he was going insane, and now he was unlocking memories he didn't know he had. But those memories still didn't connect to each other, he still couldn't figure out what came next.

Kol rubbed his forehead, still tired, and moved toward his bedroom door. He stopped at his dresser on the way out, grabbing a fresh shirt which he held between his teeth as he pulled on his jeans. He could hear muffled voices from downstairs, and made his way to the ground floor after them carefully. He watched the study door bang open, and Rebekah come waltzing out, gathering her hair up into a ponytail as she did. She stopped when she spotted him.

"You look terrible," she said, actually sounding concerned for him. Kol snorted at her.

"You look like a prostitute; I look fantastic, as always" Rebekah glared at him, any concern for his well-being gone, and shouldered past him on her way up the stairs at vampire speed, knocking him into the railing.

"Bitch," he snarled after her, popping his shoulder back into place. He stopped at the last step, frowning as Elijah, Finn and Klaus all walked out of the study. "What the hell are you all doing?"

They didn't seem surprised to see him, though Finn took a step toward him, his face screwed up in alarm. "You're very pale, Kol."

"I'm fine," he snapped. If they weren't going to talk to him, he wasn't going to talk to them. Childish and petty, but what are ya gonna do? "What's with the pow-wow? Why wasn't I invited?"

His voice sounded dry and bored even in his ears, he could only imagine their thoughts. Klaus rolled his eyes and turned away, walking out of sight and leave the eldest two to deal with him. Elijah held Kol's gaze. "We couldn't disturb you even if we wanted to. You sleep like the dead."

A reasonable explanation enough, but Kol knew he was lying. Instead of calling him out, Kol smirked. "Interesting choice of words."

"And what do you three have planned for today?" Rebekah asked, appearing at his side. She was fastening an earring on, looking expectantly at Kol.

Finn narrowed his eyes at her. "Where are you going?"

"Founder's Day is coming up and I'm helping with the decorating," explained Rebekah, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"I'll go with you."

Rebekah sent Kol and odd look. "What? You _want_ to come with me?"

Kol shrugged, wrapping his arm around his sisters shoulders and steering her towards the door. "I would like nothing more in the world than to help my baby sister out."

Rebekah sputtered wildly, looking around at Elijah and Finn for help. Her eldest brother only shrugged at her and headed upstairs; Elijah cleared his throat. "Kol-"

"It'll be fun," said Kol over Elijah's protests. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

The look that passed between them was not lost to him. And it took every ounce of willpower he had not to break one of their jaws.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **This took much longer than I wanted it to. I had a bit of writer's block and also ended up combining two chapters together. Thank you everyone who's reviewed and read so far!

* * *

Rebekah, in her defense, had _not_ wanted Kol to come with her. Also in her defense, she _had_ very clearly told him that he couldn't talk to anybody, touch anything, or in any way associate himself with her. Kol had completely ignored her and had gone as far as to take her words as a challenge.

Hence why he was painting the float with Caroline.

"You know you didn't have to come," said Rebekah lightly as she passed behind him, her arms full of fabric for the float. She and Caroline were actually getting along (they were tolerating each other at least), so Kol was lacking in entertainment from them. Kol glared after his sister, flicking paint in her hair and smirking at her lovely shriek of outrage just before she sucker punched him.

"Bitch," he called after her happily, watching her stomp off, muttering curses under her breath. He sent a wink in Caroline's direction and tossed his paintbrush at her. "Is there anyone to eat around here?"

She gaped at him, her face twisted in innocent baby vampire shock. "There are sandwiches on the table…."

Kol snorted. "Good enough."

"You look better, by the way," Caroline said as he turned away. Kol stopped, glancing back at Caroline, who suddenly looked sheepish. "I mean, you know… you're face-"

"Shut up, darling."

Caroline looked relieved, she nodded quickly and turned back to her float without another word. Kol rolled his eyes and continued on, the thought that he looked so terrible that even _these people_ had started noticing. That dream had gotten to him.

There was a pretty blonde thing in a red sweater unloading food onto the table by the time Kol sauntered over, and he smirked at her suggestively when she caught his eye. He watched her blush, enjoyed the smell of her blood rise beneath her skin, and was about to make a meal out of her when the sound of a woman laughing caught his attention. His head snapped around and he blinked.

It was the girl from the bar and the girl from his dream. She was running between piles of fallen leaves, being chased by the Gilbert boy. Kol felt his heart stutter in his chest for no reason (no reason that he would admit even if he could think of one), watching her have fun and wondering if it would be too obvious if he tried to wring an explanation out of her. She was a vampire, it's not like he could kill her.

Kol blinked, confused as to where _that_ train of thought had come from. Of course he could kill her, and he would if he wasn't so confused as to who she was. But he was slowly starting not to care. He'd kill her if he damn well wanted to and there was very little his subconscious could do about it.

Kol forced himself to tear his eyes away from the girl (What was it? Annabelle, or something? See, he didn't care…) and back to the red sweater in front of him. She had started chatting at him while he'd been otherwise occupied, and seemed content to talk on while he rolled his eyes in boredom. Kol found himself glancing back at Annabelle every so often; stuffing dead leaves down the back of Jeremy Gilbert's shirt, and pulling pieces of leaves out of her hair when he retaliated and crushed them into her face.

_Autumn was his favorite time of the year. Since coming to the highlands, earlier in the year, Kol had to admit that they had never looked lovelier. And he could appreciate the sight of nature, being what he was. Now though, he wasn't paying much attention to the scenery at all._

_His vampirism gave him the advantage of being able to catch anything, and though Annabelle was proving to be a worthy opponent, (given that she had been able to keep just out of his reach) he was older and faster._

_The sound of her laughing spurred him after her, weaving between trees with ease. Annabelle's hair flew around her face as she turned to look at him over her shoulder, her eyes bright from excitement. Her pace slowed a fraction, and Kol took the opportunity to catch her; practically barreling into her and sending them to the ground. He twisted them, landing on his back while Annabelle landed on his chest. There were tears of mirth in her eyes and leaves in her hair, which she tried vainly to push out of her face._

_She sighed, fed up and crossed her arms over his chest, propping her chin on her hands and looking down at him rather…fondly. "My hair's ruined. It'll take hours to fix it again."_

_"I like it," said Kol, reaching up to pulling a few pine needles out of her hair. She pouted at him as he tossed them to the side. He slid one arm under his head, propping himself up and quirking his lips down at her, reaching up to trace the shell of Annabelle's ear with his fingertips. "Your mother will think I had my way with you."_

_Annabelle laughed, leaning forward just to press her lips against his chastely. "She'll never believe you when you deny it."_

_"My eternal curse," he said, grinning back at her. Annabelle's smile faltered, and she blinked at him quickly, pushing herself off his chest and back onto her feet. Kol frowned, sitting up and staring at her with concern. "Have I said something?"_

_"I just…I should go."_

_"Now wait a moment," started Kol, climbing to his feet and walking after her. She glanced back at him through her hair. "Just an hour ago you were practically begging me to come away with you."_

_"I'm not running away with you-"_

_"I never said you were," snapped Kol, his temper flaring. Annabelle stopped with a sigh, her head falling back in exasperation._

_"I'm not fighting with you either," she said softly. She shook her head and straightened, turning back to look at him, her mouth twisting down sadly. "But I should go."_

_Kol caught Annabelle's hand before she had a chance to escape from him again, pulling her against his chest and wrapping his arms around her waist. Her breathy laugh filled his ears and he closed his eyes, contented. Her hair smelled like dawn._

_"You'll have to let me go eventually, Kol."_

Kol swayed on his feet, stunned by the memory. He didn't remember living in Scotland, maybe passing through with Elijah once or twice, but never staying like it seemed he had in that particular memory. Swallowing hard, Kol ran his hand over his mouth and turned away; stumbling away from the crafts table, he ignored the stupid girl and headed toward Rebekah's car, pulling the key he'd nicked off her out of his pocket.

His hands were shaking as he fumbled with the keys and the door. Elijah had tried to teach him how to drive a week or so ago (unsuccessfully, it was a horrific incident. Elijah actually squealed like a girl), so Kol knew the basics, at least enough to get home.

Kol clenched the steering wheel, breathing hard for a moment as he tried to get himself together. While he did, he spotted Annabelle near the float, pulling her hair away from her neck as she talked up at Jeremy Gilbert. Kol was a possessive kind of guy, but even he didn't understand the surge of jealousy at all; it wasn't like he knew her.

But there was one way he could find out.

Why the hell didn't he think of his journals yesterday? All his siblings kept record of their lives in one form or another, Klaus drew for instance and Rebekah made scrapbooks. Kol kept journals, like Elijah and Finn did; and they would clear up this whole mess in his head once and for all.

Pealing out of the lot, Kol drove home, considering once or twice about asking Elijah for another lesson as he narrowly missed running into the curb (Tyler Lockwood would heal quickly enough, and it wasn't like he sped up on _purpose_ with intent to hit him) a few times. If anyone was home, they didn't bother greeting him, not that he would have stopped to chat with them anyways as he headed down to the basement where Nik kept all of the things they weren't using. There were vaults all over the world with the crap they'd collected over the years, but their personal things, the one's they couldn't bear to part with, Nik had kept close to them when they'd been daggered.

Rebekah had a diadem given to her by some princess friend she had when they'd lived in Wales among few other precious things, Finn kept his swords and a bottle of alcohol so old they were all afraid to see what had happened to it, Elijah had his journals and pendants, Nik had his art along with the necklaces he was so found of, and Kol kept his journals as well as souvenirs from the places they'd lived in.

How interesting it was, as he started tearing through the pages of the journals he had always kept so meticulously detailed, that there were pages missing, torn straight out of the binding. It wasn't even discreet, which absolutely pissed him off. Tossing one unceremoniously to the side, he reached for another and paused. There weren't just pages missing, there were entire _years_ absent from his collection. His jaw clenched in rage. It was one thing for his family to lie to him, it was another to go through his personal property and destroy it.

It didn't occur to him even slightly that he could have been the one to remove them.

Spinning around, Kol stalked back upstairs, fuming, looking for something to break. He must have been downstairs for a while, because Rebekah was in front of him in an instant, her arms folded over her chest and her eyes narrowed. Kol could practically feel the irritation coming off of her, but he was too angry to give a fuck about whatever had crawled up her arse and-

"You left me _stranded_," bit out Rebekah, cutting him off as he tried to go around her. "I had to get a ride from Caroline, do you know how embarrassing-"

Kol wrapped his hands around his sister's upper arms tightly, ending her rant abruptly, and shoved her against the wall, knocking one of Nik's frames to the ground with the force he used. Rebekah gasped, winded, and stared up at him in shock. "Kol-?"

"Where are they," he snapped, glaring down at her. Rebekah shook her head, her eyes widening when his grip tightened. "Where are they, Rebekah."

"I don't know what you're talking about," spat Rebekah, trying to fight him off her. He didn't budge; instead he moved one hand from her arm to her neck, forcing her to look at him.

"There are chunks of my life missing," he hissed dangerously. "_My life_, Rebekah. Did Nik do something, are you protecting him? Where are my things, tell me."

"I don't know," growled Rebekah, using her now freed arm to push him off her and slip away. She was staring at him oddly; her eyes too wide just to be afraid of him. "Ask one of the others. Doesn't Elijah usually take care of-"

"There are_ pages_ ripped out of my journals, Rebekah!" roared Kol, slamming his fist into the wall. At first he had only wanted to figure out if Annabelle had been part of his past (and if it had come to it, find out why she was only stirring up memories now), now he wanted to know what everyone was hiding from him. He couldn't even rely on his own memories, because they were lies. "What is it that I'm not allowed to know?"

Rebekah's mouth opened and closed several times, all the while shaking her head in denial. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kol."

Kol tipped his head to the side, eyeing his little sister carefully for a minute before turned on his heel and stalked away without another word. Rebekah started slightly, almost as if she wanted to go after him, but she held herself back. Kol headed for the front door silently, wrenching it open without so much as a goodbye.

If he couldn't get any answers out of his family, why not just go straight to Annabelle herself?


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **This took much longer than I wanted it to. I had a bit of writer's block and also ended up combining two chapters together. Thank you everyone who's reviewed and read so far!

* * *

Anna watched Kol storm off from over Jeremy's shoulder as her undead heart beating wildly in her chest. She hadn't known he was going to be there…in fact she had been pretty damn sure that _volunteering_ to come decorate for Founder's Day would be the last thing he would have done. She had been prepared to avoid Rebekah, and honestly it wouldn't have been that hard, especially since she and Caroline had been too busy undermining each other all day to pay attention to anything else.

Jeremy touched her elbow, bringing her back to earth as a searing pain short straight up her arm. She jerked away instinctively, breathing hard as she cradled her arm to her chest. Jeremy's head titled at her in amused concern.

"You okay, Anna?"

She could feel blood seeping through the thing material of her shirt and her hold on her arm tightened. "Sorry, Jer, I have to go," she said, her voice strained, shouldering past him as he made a face after her.

"Oh c'mon! I thought you were gonna hang out and be miserable with me."

"I'm sorry," she tossed over her shoulder, not stopping and not sorry. Her arm was starting to burn, how long had something been wrong? She should have been paying more attention; the moment she had seen Kol yesterday she should have started being hyper aware of everything, how could she have been so stupid?

People were staring at her strangely as she stormed off across the street, ducking into an empty alleyway the first chance she got. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes from the pain and she pulled her sleeve back to check the damage. There was a large, intricately designed band carved into her skin. Despite the vampire healing it was raw and bleeding profusely. Anna's hand shook as she covered her arm back up, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing her back against the brick wall behind her.

It hadn't happened this quickly before. Running her hand across her cheek to wipe away the tears, Anna took a shuddering breath as another wave of pain racked her. It was excruciating. But the first time, feeling the patterns drawn into her flesh with cursed silver, as a punishment for being with Kol; that kind of pain she had forgotten.

There would be so much more pain if she stayed so close to him.

Anna's eyes snapped open, determined, and with a muffled groan pushed herself off the wall; she shook off her pain, stumbling slightly as she pulled herself together and headed for her motel. But no matter how hard she tried the memories that had started cropping up couldn't be pushed away.

Anna refused to get sucked into the past. Wrapping her arms tightly around her middle, she gritted her teeth and trekked on, glaring at the ground and concentrating on her pain as much as she could. Because if she didn't, if she slipped up, she would see nothing but cruel eyes and the twisted, angry frown of the witch who had ruined both her life and her afterlife; only Cataleya.

And of course she slipped up.

Her memories didn't comeback in a rush, she was never staggered when she remembered what happened to them. She never forgot in the first place, it was always there, in the back of her mind, waiting to resurface. But she never forgot.

Anna hadn't met Cataleya until the night she woke up chained to the wall in the Mikaelson's dungeons; cold, sore, and still human. The witch was waiting for her, her eyes red with tears and anger, her upper lip curled around her teeth. She was chanting, snarling, above a row of silver needles smeared in blood. Anna had blinked slowly, dazed and confused, until Cataleya began carving into her arms.

"You don't get to keep him," she had hissed in Anna's ear, her voice hoarse and low. Taking shuddering breaths, her eyes closed as Anna screamed in agony, drawing runes in so deep that bits of bone began to show. One on each arm, one between her breasts, on each of her thighs and the tops of her feet. Anna had blacked out maybe, the memories were hazy. One moment she was closing her eyes and the next her name was being called.

"_Annabelle!_"

She couldn't see Kol, but she could hear him; hear the frantic tenor of his voice and the sound of his boots scrapping against the stone flooring. Anna watched through blurred vision as his silhouette came into view. It was probably an eternity, but it felt like an instant until Kol's hands were on her, pulling her into his arms and whispering things she couldn't understand into her hair.

His blood hadn't been able to heal her, and in a panic, as her pulse had slowed beneath his hands, he stabbed her in the heart and turned her into a vampire. He killed her to make sure she would live.

Shouldering through her the door to her rented room, Anna blinked away the image of Kol's desperate expression from her mind. Flinging open her suitcase and grabbing the random things she had scattered around the room. Bra here, sock there, she should really shut the door, oh so that's where her hair ties got to-

Anna froze in the middle of the room, one arm half way through her leather jacket, when she noticed that the atmosphere in the room had shifted. She shrugged her jacket on slowly, pulling her hair over one shoulder and exposing her neck, a submissive technique used only for much, much older vampires. If it was anyone else she wouldn't have cared...

Anna turned carefully, her dead heart thundering wildly in her chest. Kol stared darkly back, lounging against the wall opposite her with his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his jaw set.

"Hello," he said, his voice sending chills down her spine. "You must be Annabelle."

She wanted to throw up. Before Anna could even blink Kol was there, towering over her. He smiled at her, it looked forced and sinister. "Relax, darling," he drawled, his eyes narrowing slightly as she stepped out of reach. She could practically see the rage coming off of him in waves as he countered her step. "I just want to know who the hell you are."

"No one," said Anna before she could stop herself, backing herself into the wall. Kol actually stopped, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"That's funny," he said. "Because that's _exactly_what you should be. No one." the comment stung, but Anna held her tongue. Seeing him up close like this, he wasn't well off. Yesterday at the Grille at least he had looked healthy, but now... Kol really did look crazed.

It broke her heart.

"Please let me go," she whispered.

Kol's eyes narrowed, replacing his confusion with irritation. "Just tell me who you are, darling," he said, his voice strained. Anna looked away, trying not to let her own emotions get the better of her.

"I _can't_," she managed to bite out. Kol's upper lip pulled.

"What do you mean you can't?" Anna shook her head.

"You compelled me not to," she said quickly, making him pause. She felt her stomach sink. Of all the things she could have said... Anna's eyes darted toward Kol, tensing to run in case he decided violence was in order. Instead his face went completely blank.

"Now why would I do that," he started, taking one careful step toward her. "When I can't remember you in the first place?"

Anna clutched her jacket around herself protectively, and headed straight toward the door, avoiding Kol. She didn't need things, she could get new things, she was a fucking vampire for god's sake, why did she need things? "I can't tell you that," said Anna under her breath. In a flash, Kol had her by the throat, slamming her against the wall so hard that bits of plaster fell from the ceiling. He snarled at her, and Anna stopped breathing.

"Do not test me, I'm not in the mood," he growled at her. Tears started gathering in Anna's eyes, and not from anything but the explosion of pain through her body. Kol pulled away from her immediately and almost immediately after, doubled over in his own pain.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" groaned Kol. Anna reached for him automatically, but managed to stop herself just in time to watch Kol's legs gave out beneath him, sending him crashing to his knees. Anna covered her mouth with her hands, horrified.

"You shouldn't have come."

Kol couldn't hear her, his body was too busy screaming in pain. And the _stupid_girl was just standing there watching him. What the hell had she done? She had to be the reason, it was the only thing he could think of.

_A woman in burgundy stood outside his window, staring up at him as he closed the drapes. His eyes narrowed in confusion before he turned away._

The same woman, her whites of her almond shaped eyes completely black, being fed by crawling veins beneath her skin. Her long, lank black hair fell around her face as she hovered over him, the inside of her mouth filled with blood.

Fire caught her hair.

Kol gasped, his eyes snapping open. The pain was gone but his memory of the witch lingered. But like most of his memories from the last two days, they were meaningless to him. With a start, Kol realized someone was bent over him, stroking his hair and whispering nonsensical things against his shoulder. He swallowed the bile rising up in his throat and pulled himself out of Annabelle's lap, watching her shirk back from him slightly.

He only had more questions.

"Tell me," he demanded, his eyes glancing over her gloved hands with mild interest. "Tell me who you are."


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **Here we go! Thank you everyone who's reviewed so far, it really means a lot to me that people are interested in this ship. This is un-beta'd, so if you find something glaringly wrong please let me know!

* * *

Anna practically flew from her room, leaving Kol staring after her dumbly for a split second before he followed her. She could hear him jogging lazily to catch up with her, obviously aware that she wouldn't stand a chance against him.

"What do you mean 'no'?"

Anna glanced back at him, unable to help the way her face twisted in disbelief. "I'm not telling you who I am, it doesn't matter."

"It _does _matter-" Anna blinked, and suddenly Kol wasn't behind her anymore. Digging her heels into the ground, Anna whipped around just in time to stop herself from plowing straight into him. He cocked his head, staring down at her with narrowed eyes. "It matters, because I say it does. Tell me. Who. You are."

Anna's eyes narrowed back at him, and she resisted the urge to snarl. "I'm compelled, remember?"

She pushed past him, listening to Kol groan in exasperation as he turned to watch her. "_Yes_, but that doesn't make any _sense!_" he shouted. "Why the _hell _would I compel a girl I don't even know?"

Anna didn't say anything, just continued heading down the now silent hallway. She could feel Kol's eyes on her as she walked; the heat of his gaze nearly burning through her. Anna turned her head down to stare at her glove covered hands, flexing her fingers as she slowed to a stop. She shouldn't have touched him; she should have run when he was unconscious. But just seeing him like that… Anna closed her eyes as a wave of emotion clawed up her throat.

Her hair ruffled in a nonexistent breeze as Kol appeared at her side, staring at her with what she assumed was a probing expression. Anna refused to look back. "Look at me."

Anna felt her insides turn to ice. He was going to undo his compulsion on her? Eyes snapping open, Anna slowly turned her head up to look at Kol, swallowing as he stepped closer to her. She felt suffocated, even more when his eyes connected with hers. There was a tense, silent moment where all they did was stare at each other, before something heavy connected heavily with the wall next to them and shattered.

They flinched away as pieces of wood and glass were showered over them, Anna backing away from Kol as quickly as she could before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing with her. She looked around for the source of the ("Was that a fucking lamp?!" Kol snarled at her.) projectile and felt her jaw drop open.

"Rebekah-"

"Don't you say a damn word," snapped the blonde, stalking down the hall toward them, her hair flying around her shoulders. She turned her glare onto Kol, grabbing onto his arm the moment she reached him and slamming him against the wall. She twisted his arm behind his back, ignoring his pained grunt as she turned her head to glare back at Anna. "Are you insane, Annabelle?"

"Bekah, I swear to God I'm leaving-"

Anna was interrupted as Kol slammed the back of his head into Rebekah's face, her head snapping back and her grip loosening on him. He pulled away and shoved her, sending her backwards into Anna. Her broken nose was healing quickly, but there were tears in her eyes from the impact; Anna wrapped her hand around Rebekah's arm, keeping her upright.

Kol pointed at Anna, his eyes on his sister as his expression took on a slightly crazed look. "You know her?"

Rebekah swallowed. "Kol-"

"WHY DOES EVERYONE SEEM TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MY LIFE THAN I DO?!" roared Kol, flinging himself away from the wall. Rebekah's breath hitched, taking Anna's hand and pushing them back. Kol stopped, his eyes flicking from one girl to the other, his jaw working as he attempted to contain his rage. Anna watched a myriad of emotions flicker behind his eyes before he leaned into Rebekah's personal space, his eyes sliding onto her as he whispered. "What is it that I'm not supposed to know?"

Rebekah's jaw clenched, her grip on Anna's hand tightening. Kol pulled away quickly when neither of them answered him, slipping his hands into his pockets and tilting his head to the side, looking each of them over.

"That's fine," he said softly, the corner of his mouth quirking though his eyes were cold. "It's only my life, and my memories; why _not _keep them from me?" Anna started toward him without hesitation, only to be jerked into Rebekah's side, the blonde linking their fingers and keeping her next to her like an anchor.

"_Don't_," she hissed, but it was too late, Kol was already gone. Anna exhaled heavily, hanging her head as she felt tears well up. Rebekah released her hand, moving to stand in front of her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" asked Rebekah tightly. Anna didn't have to see her to know how infuriated she was; shaking her head, she ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face.

"This isn't my fault," insisted Anna. "He came after me."

Rebekah rolled her eyes. "I know," she said apologetically. She was quiet for a beat, then reached for Anna's wrist, shifting to pull her. "Let's go. I'm taking you to see Nik."

"Wha-? No, Bekah, don't!" pleaded Anna, trying to wrench herself away. "That'll only make things worse!"

"You don't have much of an option at this point," Rebekah snapped back, tugging her hard. Anna stumbled after her as Rebekah practically dragged her outside. "If you leave, Kol will go after you-"

"So we stop it now," said Anna desperately, trying fruitlessly to free herself. Rebekah shot her a skeptical look.

"What?"

"Erase his memory, just like Elijah did last time." Rebekah stopped, glancing back at Anna.

"I forgot about that," she said softly. "How do you know it will work though?"

Anna shook her head, her eyes pleading. "I don't," she admitted softly. "But we have to do something. And if I can't leave…"

Rebekah scoffed, her eyes fluttering shut as she looked away, releasing Anna's wrist. "There's only one witch I know of who could do something like that."

"That's giving her a lot of credit," snorted Anna, folding her arms over her chest. "And Bonnie isn't exactly the helpful type."

"She'll do it," Rebekah said definitively. "It'll be in her best interest."

"Kol forgetting me will be in everyone's best interest," Anna pointed out, moving past Rebekah, who stared at her sadly.

"Except yours."

Anna turned, her eyebrows raised as she continued backing away. "Don't start."

Rebekah made a face, starting after Anna with a whine. "Why not? Haven't you suffered enough?"

Anna smirked bitterly, turning back around when Rebekah caught up with her. "I can't suffer enough."

The walk to Bonnie's was short and mostly silent, save for the chirp of Rebekah's phone after Klaus called her inquiring about a broken picture frame and the fist-sized hole in the wall. Rebekah had snarled _Kol_into the receiver and hung up without another word.

Anna ran her palms down her thighs as she and Rebekah waited outside Bonnie's door, the blonde Original tapping her foot incessantly for the witch to answered. Bonnie did _not _look pleased by their presence on her porch.

"What the hell do you two want?"

Rebekah sighed, rolling her head away in dismissal. Anna folded her arms over her chest, looking Bonnie straight in the eye while she spoke. "We need your help."

"There's no way," said Bonnie simply. "I don't care what you want, there's just no way."

Bonnie made to shut the door, but Rebekah's hand shot out, stopping her. "You're going to want to help us, Bonnie," she said matter-of-factly. Bonnie's lip curled, her eyes narrowing.

"Why's that?"

"We need you to wipe someone's memory for us," said Anna quickly, before Rebekah made the situation worse. "A vampire."

Bonnie's eyes slid from her back to Rebekah, looking confused. "Why can't you just compel them?"

Rebekah sighed heavily, looking at Anna. She nodded. "It's my brother, Kol," said Rebekah, shifting on her feet uncomfortably. "It wouldn't be the first time he's been made to forget; it's a fairly simple spell, I'm sure even you could do it."

Bonnie straightened, her jaw lifting at the offence. But despite how insistent she had been about not wanting to help, the natural curiosity that came with being a witch was too strong. Anna knew the process: she'd ask her questions, refuse once more, and then Anna would tell her exactly what would happen if Kol didn't forget. "Why would you want to erase his memory?"

Rebekah opened her mouth, probably to skirt around the subject a little more, but Anna beat her to it. She wanted this over as soon as possible. "Because if we don't, then the witch who cursed him is going to come back," said Anna bluntly. Bonnie's hand slipped on the door. "And you really don't want to meet her."

"There's another witch involved?" asked Bonnie, glancing at Rebekah. The blonde nodded.

"Cataleya," explained Rebekah. "She was obsessed with Kol. When he married Annabelle-"

"Stop," interrupted Anna softly as Bonnie's eyes widened and snapped onto her. Anna sucked in a shaky breath, looking back at the witch tiredly. "Will you do it?"

Bonnie was silent, chewing on her lip contemplatively. There was a tense few moments of silence when Anna thought they might have to find someone else to do the spell for them, but Bonnie nodded her head slightly and opened the door wide, stepping back and staring at them steadily.

"Would you like to come in?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd again. Please review and show me your love!

* * *

Kol's temper went beyond furious. In the centuries he'd lived, he'd never remembered being so angry. Not even when Klaus daggered him, not even close. He'd gone to see Anna to figure out why she was in his head, and she couldn't even tell him. At least he knew one thing, he _did_ know her. Though how he did, Kol had no idea; and Rebekah had interrupted before he could find out. She'd pay for that later, he'd make sure, but there was no way he could stand the sight of either of them at the moment.

He'd headed home, avoiding anything living in case his temper got the better of him and he turned the pretty little town red and wet with blood. Practically vibrating with rage, Kol (calmly as he could) walked through the front door to find the mess he'd left earlier cleaned up and the hole in the wall clearly displayed. Closing the door behind him, Kol's ears picked up the sound of pencil scratching against paper, and followed it to Klaus' drawing room.

Crossing his arms tightly over his chest, Kol watched his brother with hooded eyes as Klaus sketched out something in one of his drawing pads. Neither said a word, but with every stoke of graphite against paper, Kol felt his temper rise.

"What did you do to my journals, Nik?" asked Kol, his voice dull and offering no room for humor. Klaus' eyes flashed up to meet his, before they returned to his paper.

"They're where Elijah left them," said Klaus boredly. Kol's lip twitched upward.

"Why are they _missing_."

"I have no idea-"

"Don't fuck with me, Niklaus," hissed Kol, watching his brother still immediately. "I want answers, and you're going to give me them."

Settling his work to the side, Klaus rose from his chair, sending Kol a hard look as he headed toward his younger brother. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Kol."

Barely able to suppress a snarl, Kol clenched and unclenched his hand at his side rhythmically until Klaus stopped in front of him. He could feel his blood boiling and rising in his veins. He used to joke about their tempers once upon a time, and compare them to natural disasters. If Elijah was a hurricane, then Klaus was an earthquake, and Rebekah was a volcano, Finn was a thunderstorm, and Kol was a tornado. They were destructive and rarely did their temper tantrums leave survivors.

This wasn't a tantrum though, for once in his life, Kol was completely serious and dead set on whatever it was he was in the middle of. Everyone else knew, _everyone_, and he was tired of being in the dark. Kol's hand shot out, grabbing the front of Klaus' shirt and dragging him closer, staring him down when the older man met his eye.

"You are _lying_ to me," snarled Kol, offended. Klaus deceived and he lied, that was who he had to be to survive, but he wasn't even _trying_ to lie to Kol, and that was pissing him off. Klaus stared back at him, his expression unreadable.

"I don't know anything about your things, Kol," said Klaus again, reaching up to try and pry Kol's hand off him. Grinding his teeth together, Kol shoved him back, hard, sending Klaus flying through the room and into his desk with a sickening crash. Flashing back to his feet, Klaus' eyes were gold with uncontained rage; the color faded quickly though, which not only confused Kol, but it pissed him off more.

"I am so sick of the lies," groaned Kol loudly. "For the last two damn days that's all I've been getting from _everyone_." And good god had it only been two? "I will not hesitate to hurt you, Nik."

"Like you did Rebekah?" asked Klaus with a tired sigh; he didn't even sound upset. "Just let it go, Kol-"

"You're asking me to let go of my life," hissed Kol, his eyes burning. "Someone I care about, things I can't remember-" Kol watched his brother go very pale very suddenly and stopped his train of thought, staring hard. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm not having this discussion with you," hissed Klaus, stamping toward the door. Kol caught his arm as he passed, spinning him around.

"No- _no_." Kol's grip tightened on Klaus' arm, jerking him closer when he tried again to step away. "You know something, just like Rebekah does. Tell me what the hell it is."

"Shove off, Kol."

"I _mean it_, Nik."

"So do I!" roared Klaus; his temper snapping, Kol twisted Klaus' arm and flung him across the room, causing him to smash into his easel and land hard against the bookshelves. Klaus stumbled slightly as he picked himself up, just in time to flinch as Kol appeared in front of him, teeth bared and eyes bloodshot.

Klaus' artwork was scattered everywhere, loose pages littered across the floor at their feet. Klaus was staring at them when Kol smothered his temper to a more controllable, less destructive level. Following his gaze, Kol felt bile rise up in his throat when he recognized a face in one of the drawings. Pulling away from his brother, Kol kneeled down to pull the slip of parchment free of the others, holding the edge of the paper by his fingertips like he was afraid it would bite.

He held it lightly, staring at the detail Klaus managed to capture in such a small portrait. There was something so innocent about the way he'd drawn Annabelle, something told Kol it was done before she had been turned into a vampire.

Klaus sighed in a resigned sounding way, watching Kol with a careful eye. "Her name is Anna, Annabelle. She's a vampire you turned a very long time ago."

"That's not good enough," said Kol, tossing the drawing to the ground and turning his head. "I figured most of that out by myself. C'mon, brother, give me _something_ substantial."

"Listen to me, Kol," started Klaus seriously, stepping in close and gripping Kol's shoulder firmly. "You need to leave this entire thing alone."

"Nik-!"

"_Please_." Kol blinked; it had been a long time since he heard his brother beg anyone. Listening now, Kol nodded for him to continue. Klaus' eyes were intense, it sent an uncomfortable feeling down his spine. "It's very important that you let all of this go. _Forget_ about Anna."

.

"So how does this spell work, exactly?" asked Bonnie as casually as she could, leading the two vampires at her back into her kitchen. She sat at the table, crossing her arms over the surface and staring up at them. Rebekah dropped her hand against the back of a chair and took her time looking around, giving Anna the chance to explain the spell. Anna braced her hands on the table and stared back at the witch.

"You need to get inside Kol's head," explained Anna, sparing her sister-in-law a glance. Rebekah turned her eyes up to the ceiling, ignoring her. "Which…honestly wont be that hard."

"Yes," agreed Rebekah, her jaw working in irritation. "The hard part will be finding his memories of _Anna_ and suppressing them."

"You said I had to erase them," Bonnie reminded her, her eyes narrowing on Rebekah. Anna shook her head.

"There's not way to permanently erase his memories," said Anna slowly. "Trust me. The only thing that you can do is make him forget."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow at her. "Let me guess, loophole to whatever curse he has on him?"

Anna looked away and sighed, reaching for her sleeve and rolling it up to her elbow, showing Bonnie and Rebekah the wound on her arm. Rebekah looked up at her sharply, her eyes widening.

"Anna-"

"It's not just his curse," said Anna through clenched teeth. "I suffer first; the more Kol remembers…" Anna trailed off, pushing her sleeve back down. She'd gotten used to the pain in her arms, but Kol was remembering her and the curse was working faster than it had been before. She could already feel her other arm starting to prickle painfully as her skin tore apart.

"Why don't I know this?" whispered Rebekah, for Anna's ears only. "Does Nik know, or Elijah-"

"You're the only one who knows now," Anna muttered back, glancing at Rebekah out of the corner of her eye. Rebekah turned away, looking hurt. Finding Bonnie's eyes, Anna reached into the pocket of her jacket. "I have go back to my room, I don't have anything of mine you can use for the spell, but I have this of Kol's-" Anna dropped a gold band onto the table, watching it roll to the center and fall to it's side. Rebekah watched Bonnie reach for it, her eyes glazed.

"So all I have to do is use this to connect myself with Kol and take away his memories?" Bonnie clarified, raising the ring to her eyes and turning it between her fingers. Anna nodded.

"In order to find the memories with me in them you'll need something of mine. I mean…you _could_ just hold my hand, but-"

"I'd rather not," interrupted Bonnie, sending her a look. Anna flashed her a grin and pushed the chair back from the table. Rebekah sighed and turned, digging into her back pocket and pulling out a matching ring on a chain. She dropped it on the table and folded her arms across her chest, frowning at it.

"Don't bother leaving," she grumbled. "We had a family meeting last night about you and Kol, I took that from his things just in case."

"That's lucky," muttered Bonnie, reaching for the ring. Rebekah snorted at her, glaring.

"It's not _luck_. It's precaution," Rebekah shook her head and pushed away from the table, stalking around the kitchen slowly. "I'm _lucky_ because I found it in the first place. He's destroyed most of the evidence he kept of Anna; his journals mostly…."

Bonnie huffed suddenly, catching both vampire's attentions as she looked wildly from one to the other. "Is there an incantation I need or-"

"Just concentrate," instructed Anna, Rebekah nodding along in agreement. "You'll know it when you're in Kol's head."

Bonnie straightened her spine, clasping both rings in her hands and holding them to her chest as she closed her eyes; her teeth clenched together in concentration.

.

Kol stared back at his brother, his brow drawn together in disbelief. "I can't do that," said Kol tightly. "I'm not letting anything go."

Klaus' grip on Kol's shoulder went slack, and Kol shoved him away with little resistance. His lip twitched in irritation and he shouldered past Klaus and stalked across the room without another look back, pushing open the door and nearly running straight into Elijah and Elena Gilbert. Muffling a snarl, Kol took a careful step away from his brother, eyeing the doppelganger with disinterest.

"What is _this,_ Elijah?" he asked mockingly. Elena shifted uncomfortably on her feet, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"I'm collecting things for the Founders Day gala at the Lockwood mansion," explained Elena, glancing up at Elijah. He was staring unblinkingly over Kol's shoulder, at what he assumed was Klaus and the mess they'd created. "Elijah said I could look through some of your-"

"I really don't care, darling," interrupted Kol, rolling his eyes and starting part his brother. Elijah stopped him with a hand to his chest, tilting his head to the side in concern.

"What have you done now, Kol?"

"I think Rebekah might have given us away, Elijah," said Klaus casually. Kol twisted his head around to find him leaning against the doorframe, examining his nails. "Kol went to see Anna."

"Anna Johnson?" asked Elena, earning the attention of all three vampires. She looked up at Elijah with a frown. "What do you want with her?"

"I don't have time for any of this," hissed Kol, pushing past Elijah and knocking Elena over when she didn't get out of the way fast enough. His brother's annoyed voice calling after him was the last thing he heard as a piercing cry filled his head ; the world tilted sideways and everything went black.

.

Anna was watching Bonnie, her mouth turned down in boredom; Rebekah was strumming her fingers against her thigh impatiently, turning slowly as they waited for Bonnie to finish. Anna grimaced, hunching her shoulders as a shot of pain blossomed through the center of her chest. Raising her hand to the familiar spot, Anna pulled the collar of her shirt down and found her skin carved out and smeared with blood.

"Damn," she murmured, catching Rebekah's attention.

"Why doesn't anyone know about this, Anna?" asked Rebekah softly. "Why did you let us believe Kol was the only one Cataleya hurt?"

"Would it have helped?" Anna snapped back, pinning Rebekah with a glare. "He's the one you care about, there wasn't any reason for the rest of you to know about me."

"What do you mean 'the rest of us'?"

Anna adjusted the fabric over her chest, grimacing when it stuck uncomfortably. "Why do you think Kol turned me? Who do you think he went to when I transitioned?"

Rebekah exhaled sharply, shaking her head in disbelief. "Finn and Nik. Idiots, you still should have told us."

"If you two could stop talking," interrupted Bonnie carefully. "I would appreciate it."

"Well what the hell is taking so long?" groused Rebekah, dropping her head back in exasperation. Bonnie frowned, her eyes still closed, and tightened her grip on the rings.

"It's like there's something blocking me," she rationalized. "I thought you said this would be easy."

"Obviously we overestimated you," said Anna, her eyes flicking across the tension in Bonnie's face. The witch opened her eyes, uncoiling completely to stare at Anna dryly. The vampire only shrugged. "It _is_ a simple spell."

Bonnie opened her mouth to snap something scathing back, when the air was suddenly sucked out of the room. Bonnie choked, her hands slamming flat against the table and her fingers bending upwards painfully. Rebekah straightened immediately, but was sent flying through the kitchen wall with a sharp look from Bonnie.

Scrambling out of her chair and back against the wall with a Rebekah shaped hole in it, Anna watched Bonnie with wide eyes as the air was blown back into the kitchen, screaming around them and whipping painfully against their skin.

In slow motion, Bonnie stood from the table, turning her eyes onto Anna; they were rimmed red and wet with anger, the veins underneath her skin rising to the surface and standing out dark. Anna swallowed, her legs shaking as she watched Bonnie round the table and walk toward her, stopping a hairsbreadth away. Digging her nails into her palms, Anna felt her blood run cold.

"_Cataleya."_


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna (other canon pairings)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **And we're at the halfway point! Unbeta'd again, but please review and show me your love!

* * *

Kol's world was still black when he finally came too. And it took him a moment to realize that his eyes were closed; it took even longer to realize that he wasn't lying on the expensive Persian rug he had collapsed onto. He winced as something sharp poked him in the eye, batting away whatever it was and opening his eyes with a grimace.

He was outside. Frowning, Kol turned over stared up at the pieces of sky visible through he closely knit trees around him. He'd been in this particular wood often enough that he recognized it immediately. He was in the old world, England, and he had no bleeding idea how he'd gotten there.

Someone groaned softly next to him, and he snapped his head around to find Anna stirring. She was pale and there were leaves sticking in her hair when she raised her head to look around. Kol propped himself up on his elbow, frowning down at her as she got her bearings. This wasn't a memory or a dream or whatever. This was like…real.

Kol's eyes narrowed at Anna, figuring she had something to do with this like she had with everything else he'd been through recently. "What the hell did you do to me now?"

Anna's eyes snapped onto him, widening in surprise and a little bit of horror, scooting away from him almost immediately. Kol sighed, running his hand through his hair. She was so predictable.

Shaking his head, he turned away from her, sitting up and resting his forearms on his knees, looking around boredly. "Why are we here, then?"

"I…" Kol eyed her expectantly, watching her push herself onto her feet; she brushed off her sleeves with a grimace as she turned her head around. Anna looked at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. "I have no idea."

Kol blinked, frowning back at her. He had slowly begun to realize that this wasn't her game, that she wasn't the one playing with his head. Because if she was, his family wouldn't have had to lie to him. They were all in on it though, that was obvious. Anna looked away from him, shaking her head absently as she went back to looking at their surroundings.

He tracked her with his eyes as she moved to one of the trees, running her hand over the trunk. "It's England," he said, earning a sharp look in return. Kol shrugged. "If you were wondering."

"I was," she murmured, turning back to the tree for a moment. Kol stared at her as she turned toward him with a sigh, rubbing the heel of her hand into her forehead, her eyes shut tight. "That bitch."

Kol quirked an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"

"Nothing," said Anna quickly, crossing her arm over her chest. "Whatever's going on, Bonnie can fix it."

"The Bennett witch," said Kol with interest. Anna nodded hesitantly, suddenly looking wary. "What on _earth _does she have to do with any of this? And for the matter," Kol continued, standing smoothly. "What the hell do you?"

"I told you-"

"I am so sick and tired of people lying to me," interrupted Kol nastily, making Anna flinch away. "I want to know every god damn detail _right now_, or I will rip out your heart."

"You can't do that," said Anna nervously, backing away from him slowly. Kol's lip pulled upward in a snarl.

"Watch me."

To her credit, Anna didn't bolt; it seemed she knew how to keep him pacified, because instead she stayed impossibly still as he stalked up to her, reaching out to curl his hand around her throat when he was close enough. She ducked under his arm at the last moment, elbowing him in-between his shoulder blades and shoving him to the ground. Kol blinked into the forest floor, slightly dazed, and twisted around to stare at her standing over him.

"If I weren't so pissed off I'd be impressed."

Anna raised her arms slightly, sighing dejectedly. "I still can't tell you anything. I wouldn't even if I could."

Kol reached out and grabbed her ankle, jerking her off her feet and watching her slam against the ground. She groaned, pressing her hand to her head as Kol sat up on his knees, staring down at her. "You can tell me _something _about why we're here," he started. Honestly he was surprised that he hadn't snapped her neck by that point, it's not like she was even being helpful.

Anna sighed, staring at him with an expression he couldn't place. "There's a witch involved in all this; it's her fault we're here."

Kol hummed, nodding once, not caring even slightly. "And here is….?"

"Fuck if I know, this hasn't ever happened before," muttered Anna, pulling a rock out from beneath her shoulder and tossing it away. Kol grabbed her wrist, stilling her immediately, and just like in the hotel room earlier tears sprung to her eyes.

Kol wasn't going to fall for it this time though, and tightened his grip, dragging her upward and towards him when she tried to pull away. Anna's face tightened in what looked like pain, her other hand coming up to try and pry his fingers off of her, only succeeding in starting a small struggle. Kol snarled, pinning her wrists over her head even as she arched upward, crying out.

The heavy scent of blood filled the air and Kol stopped fighting her abruptly, releasing one of her arms to look for the source of the blood. Frowning, he slid his hand down her side and over her hip, making a mental note to seriously consider seducing her when all this was over. He paused against her thigh, his lips parting in surprise as he stared at the blood seeping through her jeans. His fingers came back stained in her blood, and as he looked back up at her warily, he realized she was still crying.

"Am I doing this?" he asked seriously, holding out his blood covered hand in question. Anna's head turned, blinking quickly, and Kol followed her gaze to the hand he still hand wrapped around her wrist. He pulled away slowly and stopped, taking her sleeve and pulling it down her arm. There was more blood, carved into her skin in some sort of Celtic pattern. It looked horribly painful, and also explained why she didn't want him to touch her. "Is this my fault?" asked Kol again. Anna's eyes turned onto him, glassy and dim from pain.

"Yes," she said softly, almost reluctantly, pulling her arm away from him and sitting up, scooting backwards. She covered her arm back and shook off the pain, which Kol had to give her props for.

"At least we're getting somewhere," he muttered, flicking his eyes away in irritation. Anna just ignored him and wrapped her arms around her knees.

.

Elena watched uncomfortably as Elijah and Klaus muttered heatedly over Kol's unconscious body. They had both nearly flipped their shit when he passed out; it would have been really sweet if they hadn't been making things so serious. Adjusting her purse on her shoulder, she shifted awkwardly from foot to foot while Klaus growled something about curse's. They'd been at it for nearly five minutes, leaving Elena standing forgotten at Kol's feet. She didn't mind, honestly it was nice to see a bit of humanity in Klaus and some familial emotion in Elijah; but she had stuff to do and this really wasn't her place to stand and gawk at their unconscious brother.

"I'm gonna come back another time, Elijah," said Elena, earning both Mikaelson's attentions. Elijah opened his mouth to most likely protest (albeit, politely), but Elena shook her head, raising a hand defensively. "You should take care of your family, the Founders party can wait."

"If you're sure," said Elijah, trailing off uncaringly as he turned back to Kol. Klaus had already wrapped an arm around their younger brother and was pulling him up when the front door slammed open. All heads turned as Rebekah walked in, dragging in a half-conscious Bonnie by her hair and carrying a completely unconscious Annabelle over her shoulder.

"Bonnie!"

"Rebekah, what in hell…?"

Elena scrambled around Klaus and Elijah to get to her friend, who Rebekah unhanded gratefully. Bonnie slumped against Elena's shoulder, groaning and rubbing her temple. Elijah abandoned Klaus and was at his sister's side in a moment, pulling Anna into his arms and relieving Rebekah. She sighed, sounding satisfied, clasping her hands together as she turned to Klaus and her unconscious brother.

She balked. "Oh my god, Kol-"

"I assume this _is _your doing then?" snarled Klaus, gesturing to Anna. Rebekah's teeth ground together agitatedly, lifting her chin defiantly.

"Bonnie fucked up the spell," she snapped, nodding to the witch. Bonnie glared back at her, still leaning heavily on Elena to stay standing.

"How was I supposed to know I was going to be _possessed _by the dead witch who cursed them?"

Elijah swore, eyeing Bonnie cautiously while Klaus bared his teeth at her. "Get her out of here."

Rebekah shook her head. "She has to get rid of Kol's memories-"

"She has to _wake them up _first," Finn snapped, sounding strained as he finally joined the crowd of people. The eldest Mikaelson slipped past Rebekah, sparing her a small smile before stopping next to Elijah to get a better look at Anna. He pushed her hair away from her forehead, frowning at her, and craned his head around to speak to Bonnie. "I suppose you can get them back?"

Bonnie nodded, finally able to pull away from Elena without swaying on her feet. Elena grabbed her hand, holding onto her friend tightly as she moved to stand beside Finn. "I can, but I'm not strong enough to wipe Kol's memory right now-"

"We'll deal with that later," interrupted Elijah quickly. "And frankly, Bonnie, you shouldn't have been involved in the first place," this he said with a pointed look at Rebekah, who rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh," said Bonnie suddenly, turning to Rebekah and holding out her hand, Kol and Anna's rings glinting in her palm. "Thought you might want these."

Rebekah took them quickly, avoiding her brother's eyes and turning to Elena, putting on a fake smile for the doppelganger. "Walk you out?" she offered brightly, taking her arm and dragging her toward the front door without an answer. Elena shot Bonnie a worried look over her shoulder, but Bonnie reassured her with a small smile; it faded when Elena was out of sight, and the witch turned to the vampires surrounding her with steely determination.

"Let's take this somewhere more private," said Klaus, nodding to Finn who appeared on Kol's other side in an instant, scooping the younger man into his arms while the hybrid original smirked politely at Bonnie. "Ms. Bennett, if you wouldn't mind?"

Not even hesitating, Bonnie swept past Elijah and followed Klaus into the house, heading to the sitting room where not even twelve hours ago they were discussing the possibility of erasing their brother's memory again. Finn dropped Kol unceremoniously onto one of the couches, while Elijah was much more gentle. Bonnie stood between them, her eyes closed, already muttering under her breath. Elijah backed away from Anna quickly, standing beside his brother's to watch the witch work.

She was finished in moments, blinking her eyes open and glancing at each unconscious vampire in turn before nodding, satisfied. "They'll wake up soon," she explained, starting for the door. Rebekah blocked her path, cocking her head to the side and frowning prettily.

"What's the rush, Bonnie?" she asked, her voice low. "Why don't you just stay a while."

"Enough, Rebekah," snapped Finn, taking his sister by the elbow and pulling her to the side; Bonnie's eyes followed her expressionlessly. "We don't need to force her to do anything else for us."

"You don't know how bad off Anna is," hissed Rebekah, glaring at each of her brother's in turn. "Though you should, seeing as you were there when Kol turned her-"

"Rebekah, I said that was _enough_."

"I'll come back," said Bonnie suddenly, interrupted Rebekah as the blonde opened her mouth to argue back. Bonnie nodded, her lips curling upward softly. "It's the least I could do after screwing up the spell so terribly."

"_Thank _you, Bonnie," said Klaus, sounding less relieved and more condescending, but at least it was a thank you. Bonnie inclined her head toward him and swept out of the room without another word, looking back at Anna and Kol only when she was at the door. Elijah turned his head to watch her go, catching her eye briefly before Bonnie disappeared.

Elijah frowned after her, feeling uneasy and a little sick but no less relieved that his brother would be alright. And he would be, this was Kol, after all…


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd and sorry, because this took longer than I would have liked. This is a flashback chapter, so you at least get some interaction :)

* * *

Kol woke once again with a groan, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes to try and fight off his growing headache. He didn't need this shit; he didn't need to deal with witches and lost memories and lies. While he grumbled internally about his life, he registered that he wasn't on the floor and his shoes were missing. It was a step up from waking up in a freaking forest, but there was a slight nagging in the back of his mind that whatever had happened with him and Anna had been a dream.

Kol sat up with a start, remembering that something had been seriously wrong with that girl before he'd been pulled back to reality (or so he assumed was reality, he was lying on a couch in his brother's study after all). He flinched at the feeling of cold hands on his neck, and swiveled his head around to find Rebekah staring him sympathetically. He rolled his eyes and shoved her away, swinging his legs off the couch and standing up.

"Where's Anna?"

Rebekah folded her arms over her chest. "You can't see her."

He sneered, turning away from her and heading for the door. He pulled back slightly when Rebekah appeared in front of him, glaring at his little sister as she tried to block him path. He tilted his head to the side dangerously. "Do we have to go down this road again, sister?"

To her credit, the determination on Rebekah's face only faltered slightly. "You can't-"

"Don't start, Rebekah," snapped Kol, shoving her to the side and sweeping past her without another look in her direction. "You all had your chance to explain yourselves, but I've figured most of it out. There's no point in trying to stop me from seeing her."

_Once again _Rebekah put her hands on him, trying unsuccessfully to pull him to a stop. Kol snarled her name dangerously, but she interrupted him with a quick punch to the ribs. "You don't know anything, Kol-"

Jerking his arm out of Rebekah's grip, Kol grabbed her by the hair and shoved her face first into the wall by the door. "Get. Off," he hissed into her ear, pushing away from her back and walking out before she could stop him again.

And lucky for her she didn't follow him, and lucky for him he didn't run into any of his brothers as he stalked through the house looking for Anna. She was hurt because of him, and normally he wouldn't care but he had no idea what he'd done. He liked owning the consequences of his actions, he relished in the mayhem he caused, but Kol had no idea what he'd done to Anna, and he didn't like being blamed for something he didn't do.

His nose caught the sharp scent of blood just as he was passing Rebekah's room, making him stop and backtrack to the door. It was locked, which was unfortunate for Rebekah as Kol made quick work twisting the knob until the lock snapped in half and the door swung open. Anna was in his sister's bed, fully clothed but missing her shoes, her dark hair splayed out across the pillow in spirals.

Closing the door behind him for a bit of privacy, Kol took his time walking up to the bed, fiddling with the things Rebekah kept in her room (kicking a bra out of his path and making a mental note to tell Elijah that their sister was a slob) before he reached her side, staring down at her sleeping face. She didn't look like she was in much pain, he mused to himself, ghosting his fingers across her forearms. There was blood staining her chest beneath a necklace, and Kol's eyebrows pulled together in recognition.

He reached for it, lifting it gingerly and turning it over to get a better look. It wasn't special, just a piece of leather twisted around itself, but the significance of _her_ having it weighed on him. It was his, he made it himself when he'd been human and spelled it to never wear down. It was the first spell his mother had ever taught him, it was the only spell he still remembered how to perform.

Hooking his fingers around the necklace, Kol swallowed thickly. He thought he'd lost it centuries ago, and to find it now, being worn by this mystery of a girl broke his heart. He should remember her; if she was important enough to him to give the only possession he had kept of his human life then he should remember her. It was insulting to both of them that he didn't know.

Kol let the necklace drop back to Anna's chest and dropped onto the edge of the bed beside her, propping his feet on the bedframe. Just as he expected, he was sucked back into his past, with memories he had no idea he'd had.

.

Kol was hovering over his brother's shoulder as Finn droned on about manners and proper etiquette. It didn't matter how many times Kol rolled his eyes and muttered that Finn was a bloody pirate, he still had to sit through the hour long lectures. This was a special occasion though, they were leaving the Old World in a month and a half and Elijah had decided a farewell ball was in order; it had been a hundred years since they'd been home, and no one was looking forward to it.

Kol was dragging his feet after Finn as his older brother stopped to direct a few servants to the kitchens. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he leaned back on his heels and took in the slowly changing décor. Elijah knew how to throw a party at least, something Rebekah always found amusingly suspicious. Movement above him on the first landing caught Kol's eye, and he looked up just in time to see the door leading to Niklaus' chambers snap shut. Finn turned to look at him, his mouth open to continue whatever speech he'd been in the middle of before he'd gotten distracted; hesitating when he realized Kol wasn't paying attention, Finn followed his gaze and sighed.

"Have you seen the witch yet?" he asked, his voice low. Kol shook his head.

"I avoid witches, you know that," he said, smirking bitterly. Finn had been gifted with magic too, before they had been turned into vampires, he knew how painful it was to go without feeling the earth. Finn had turned that feeling into hatred; Kol had turned it into sadism.

"She's strange," muttered Finn, shaking his head. "Best that you stay away from her."

"What's the name of this one anyway?" asked Kol as Finn clapped him on the shoulder and steered him back on their path. Finn only shrugged.

"I have no idea."

The ball was dull, but the drink was good, and at least Elijah spared no expense on food. Kol smirked as he wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth with a napkin, dropping it onto the arm of a passing guest and sweeping into the crowed. He found Rebekah quickly, slipping his arm through her and pulling her away from what _had_ to be a titillating conversation with someone she far outclasses. Even so she hissed at him as he dragged her away.

"How dare you-"

"Come now, sister, I'm bored," he interrupted, shooting a grin at her over his shoulder. "Watching you spread your legs for every man who meets your eye gets rather dull after a while."

Rebekah's jaw snapped shut as she fumed, wrenching her arm from his grip and causing him to stop abruptly and turn back to her. She sneered. "Wasn't it Finn's job to keep you on a lease?"

Kol stepped back into her personal space to smirk back. "Obviously he failed. So sister, whose life should I ruin tonight?"

His enthusiasm rubbed off on her, his poor impressionable sister, and after a moment of staring at him speechlessly, her glare faltered and she looked away to hide her smile from him. Her chin tilted upwards in determination, and Kol followed her gaze to a small girl in a lovely purple dress with her hair plaited intricately down her back.

"Have you met Annabelle yet, Kol?"

Kol didn't answer; instead he glanced at his sister, raising an eyebrow at her before his gaze went back to Annabelle. "And what wrong has she caused you?"

"No wrong," Rebekah quipped, much to his surprise. "I like her; she's not nearly as insufferable as the other women here."

"So?" asked Kol, swiveling his head around to stare at Rebekah. "What do I care if she's nice or not? Rebekah, I'm _bored_," he stressed, flicking his arm in the direction of the girl. "And unless you want me to kill her, she won't help-"

"Rebekah wants you to kill me?" Kol froze, watching Rebekah purse her lips as she once again fought down a smile. Closing his eyes briefly, Kol turned and looked at Annabelle. She had her hands folded behind her back and her head tilted to the side. Her eyes were narrowed, but there was something light about the way she was glaring at him. She lifted a shoulder and looked at Rebekah. "Whatever for?"

"Sheer boredom, apparently," said Rebekah with a heavy sigh. She placed her hand on Kol's arm and shoved him forward gently. "Annabelle, I'd like you to meet my brother, Kol."

Kol hated his sister, oh he really did. He hated being caught off guard, and worse than that they were making fun of him. He spared Annabelle a tight smile and took her hand; he could feel her pulse racing in her palm, and that alone loosened his attitude. "A pleasure, Annabelle."

"He's lying, of course?" Annabelle asked, looking to Rebekah for confirmation. Kol dropped her hand and rolled his eyes to the ceiling, praying for patience and for his sister to stop laughing at him. He was blessed with neither. With a sharp grin, shoved Rebekah hard and stepped to the side to take her place in front of Annabelle. He felt like he'd been issued a challenge.

Taking Annabelle's elbow, Kol steered her away from the party and his sister's appalling language. She kept his pace, giggling breathlessly when he stopped suddenly to make sure his siblings weren't following them. Annabelle shook her head, ducking around him and slipping her arm out of his grip until she could catch his hand. "I thought you had forgotten me," she whispered.

As if he could forget a girl who made a fool out of Elijah. "I did invite you, didn't I?" he whispered back, leaning down to kiss her cheek quickly. "And how did you make friends with my sister so quickly?"

Annabelle shrugged. "I like Rebekah."

"No one likes Rebekah."

"Well I do," she said defiantly. "She's nicer than Elijah, at least."

"You're just upset because he still hasn't apologized for underestimating you," Kol returned with a smirk, and it was true. Elijah was usually so tactful, but he had really put his foot in his mouth with Annabelle the other day. It was the reason she'd caught Kol's eye in the first place. "But it's much more fun to hold a mistake like that over him, trust me."

Annabelle nodded, smiling softly up at him. "I trust you."

Such open emotion made his stomach flip, and Kol took a moment to appreciate the human girl holding his hand. He liked her better outside, wearing lighter fabric and her hair loose around her shoulders. He felt like he'd known her for an eternity instead of only a few days.

"C'mon, I promised I'd show you the-" Kol was cut off as a tall woman with caramel colored skin shouldered into Annabelle, sweeping off without an apology or even a glance back in their direction. Kol frowned after her, reaching out to place his hand on Annabelle's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said with a small shake of her head, placing her hand over his as she tried to find the woman in the crowd. "Who was that?"

A small shock of anxiety ran down Kol's spine as the woman he was watching turned her head and caught his eye. His eyebrows pulled together in confusion, because she seemed familiar enough to him. He ignored the feeling and ran his hand down Annabelle's arm, taking her hand and pulling her closer to him. "I don't know," he answered her, breaking eye contact and smiling down at the girl next to him. "Obviously she isn't important. Now come with me, get out of this stuffy room."

Kol used to love hard and fast and wholly, with all his being until there was nothing left for him to give. With Annabelle is was different though, she never once expected anything from him; and he took a perverse sense of pleasure out of watching her react when his vampire side surfaced. He expected her to be terrified, most girls were, but Annabelle seemed fascinated by it. He didn't know why he showed her in the first place, probably because he was leaving and he didn't want to become too attached.

But it was hard...not getting attached to Annabelle, it was difficult to think of leaving her behind. A few times he actually sat down with Niklaus to try and ask to stay in England, but every time he wasn't able to. He couldn't leave his family, but he didn't want to leave _her_.

They were lying together on the forest floor, letting the day pass them by as they lazed about in each others company; Kol was hovering over Annabelle, one arm curled near her head and playing with her hair as his other drew indistinguishable patterns along her side. She had her eyes closed and her breathing was even, every now and then peeking at him to make sure he was still-

"You're being quite creepy," she told him simply, making him laugh.

"Most girls would find this romantic."

"You're not romantic."

Kol snorted, his feature's quirking briefly in agreement. "This is true."

Annabelle smiled back, turning her head toward him as his fingers crept along the side of her face. "You're leaving soon," she said softly, plucking at his tunic absently. "I can't bear to think about it."

"I would take you with me," Kol admitted, settling his hand firmly on her waist, dragging her body closer to his and leaning down to brush his lips against hers "If I could."

"You don't seem like the type to long for someone else," said Annabelle softly, moving her hand up to press against his sternum, pushing him back slightly. "I thought a vampire could do whatever he wanted."

"_I_ do whatever _I_ want," hissed Kol playfully, nipping at her lower lip. "But I've built up a bit of a reputation with my siblings. They'll mock me terribly when they find out about you."

"If they're even a bit as clever as you, they'll already know."

Kol mentally groaned as he realized she was right. He sighed, pressing a lingering kiss to her mouth before he sat back on his heels. Annabelle propped herself up on her elbows, her hair tangled around bits of leaves and twigs. Kol slid his hand down her throat and settled in the middle of her chest, letting her heart beat under his palm for a few moments in silence.

"I do love you, though," he said, barely above a whisper. It felt right to say to her, it felt right to admit. He'd never cared for anyone like he did for Annabelle, and he didn't know why. She was such a bright light in his world, and if his brother's ever found out they would mock him until the end of time. But if he had Annabelle...

"Come with us," said Kol suddenly, moving his hand away from her chest and leaning down to wrap his arms around her waist, hauling her off the ground and into his lap. Annabelle squeaked in surprise, her hands flying up to brace against his neck.

"What?" she sputtered, her eyes going wide. "But you just said-"

He cut her off with a kiss, his hands roaming over her back as she sunk into him; her fingers curled into the hair at the nape of his neck when she finally kissed him back. "They don't even like me," she mumbled against his lips, and Kol tsk'd in return.

"They'll adore you, because I do," he reasoned, trailing his lips down her neck and sucking at her pulse point. "Say you'll come," he breathed against her skin, listening to her sigh. "I will beg you, Annabelle; please come with me."

"Of course I will," she said immediately, tugging on his hair and getting him to look at her. Her eyes were shining, her cheeks flushed with excitement and lust. "I'll go anywhere with you."

Whatever snide remarks his brother's had about his decision to take Annabelle were drowned out by Rebekah's shriek of excitement in his ear as she hugged the life out of him. His sister was far too invested in his life to be healthy, and as he caught Niklaus' eye, he could see his older brother agreed.

"Her being human," started Elijah, cutting off Rebekah's babbling and giving Kol the opportunity to shove her off of him. He caught Elijah's eye, his own narrowing in warning before his brother continued. "That wont be a problem for you?"

"I don't want her to be a vampire," said Kol with a small shake of his head. "Not yet, not if I can help it."

"Can you?" asked Finn curiously, making Kol pause. He would love to be with Annabelle forever, he hadn't ever turned anyone before, not on purpose. Rebekah touched his arm, drawing his gaze and frowning up at him.

"Don't think too hard, you might hurt yourself."

Three days before they were supposed to leave England, Niklaus sent his witches away and for the first time brought up a way to break his hybrid curse. Kol was expecting something like that, to be honest, why else would he have consorted with witches? His brother had a temper and he held grudges, there was no way he would keep the company of witches unless he wanted something from them.

Niklaus had him hunting for anything they'd left behind. Finn had vehemently buggered off to the pub to avoid spending any more time with the hybrid than he had to, and Elijah was absolutely useless when it came to identifying anything but sage.

But it was better than sleep. He hadn't talked to Annabelle at all that day, and it was starting to worry him. Her parents were entrusting him with their daughter and he couldn't even keep track of her. Niklaus appeared at his shoulder suddenly, unsurprisingly, and nodded to him in greeting.

"Find anything?" he asked, shifting on his feet uncomfortably. Kol shook his head.

"Are you sure they would be stupid enough to leave something behind?"

Niklaus shook his head, sliding his eyes away with a small grimace. "I'm only worried about one of them. I had to force her out, I'm surprised you hadn't noticed her."

Kol rolled his eyes onto his brother, his expression blank. "You know I don't bother with witches."

Niklaus' laughter faded as a muffled sound caught their attentions. He swung his head around, frowning, while Kol strained to hear it again. "What was that?"

Kol placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, looking in the direction of the doors leading down the to dungeons. "It came from below."

Niklaus opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. They turned in tandem, frowning in the direction of the entrance hall.

"Go," he ordered, already stepping away from Kol and heading in the direction of the front of the house. "I have a feeling Finn's returned. We'll join you in a moment."

Kol hummed in acceptance and started for the dungeons, propping the door open and taking an unlit torch from it's brace in the wall. He fumbled for a moment to get it lit, and headed down the stairs to the unoccupied cells below. Usually they kept a few humans down there to feed from without drawing suspicion, but since they were leaving it _should_ have been empty.

He could hear shallow breath through the stone; he staggered forward when he opened the door separating their personal prison from the stairwell, the scent of blood forcing his fangs out immediately as his mouth watered. it took him a moment to compose himself again, and when he did he realized that he recognized the scents in the room.

The torch fell from his hand, sparks flying around his ankles as it hit the ground; but Kol didn't notice. Lips parted his shock, he moved quickly into the dungeon, barely glancing at the empty cells on either side of him as he walked. He knew the scent of blood in the air, because he'd tasted it before; "Annabelle?!"

He's done horrible things before, they all had; for revenge or fun or out of anger, he had preformed truly awful acts on humanity. But seeing someone he loved covered in so much blood phased him, painfully so, and in an instant Kol was in front of her, pulling the chains around her wrists straight out of the wall and gathering her up in his arms. The smell of her blood was making him nauseous, it was a wonder she was still alive. The thought that someone wanted her dead made his head spin.

Kol nearly severed his hand as he bit into his wrist, watching her eyelids flutter as he cradled her head and forced his blood down her throat. He waited for what felt like a century (and he didn't make that comparison lightly), watching her wounds with a rapidly growing sense of dread. His brain was moving faster than he wanted it to, connecting the patterns carved into her skin with the psychotic witch Niklaus had employed. Annabelle wasn't the type to get involved with witches though, to his understanding she didn't even know about them.

And her wounds wouldn't heal. Kol's wrist had already stitched itself back together, and he wrenched it away from her with a strangled growl, running his fingers through his hair as he struggled to think.

He didn't know if she would come back to him if she bled to death, and he couldn't stand the thought of her dying that way. There was a knife in his boot, he could do it himself and guarantee that she would turn into a vampire. His hand shook slightly as he pulled out the blade, his eyes never leaving Annabelle's face when he plunged it straight into her heart.

Kol wasn't a stranger to death, or murder. He was prepared to feel something for killing her, but there wasn't anything. He just felt heavy and numb. He didn't even hear Niklaus and Finn calling his name until they were on top of him, pulling him to his feet and Annabelle out of his arms. His eldest brother's face appeared in front of him, frowning, his grip firm as he settled his hands on his shoulders.

"Kol, what happened?"

Blinking quickly, Kol forced himself back to earth, sucking in a deep breath and fighting back the need for blood. "I found her down here. Your witch, whoever she was, she must have-"

"Cataleya," interrupted Niklaus, he was kneeling next to Annabelle's head, checking her pulse. He glanced at the knife handle sticking out of her chest. "Kol..."

"She'll turn," said Kol with a firm nod, his hands wrapping around Finn's wrists; feeling anchored. "I fed her my blood, killed her...she'll turn. _It'll be fine..."_

Kol blinked himself out of his memory, feeling like pieces of his stupid life were finally falling into place. He knew nothing about whatever curse was on him, still, but he knew Anna; he couldn't deny that he knew her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd. Fun stuff happening soon.

* * *

Kol didn't have to wait long before Anna woke, squeezing her eyes closed and lifting a hand to her brow as she fought off sleep. Kol tilted his head as he watched her, wishing he could feel like he knew her. He had the memories but not the emotion, that's what was wrong; that's why he had never felt like he knew her, because he couldn't feel an emotional connection between them. But he was starting to, and that was something at least.

Anna's arm fell to her side, bouncing against the mattress lifelessly while she stared back at him; like she wasn't even surprised to see him there. She almost looked irritated with him, and he wasn't surprised when she smacked his arm away as he reached out to touch her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked him dryly, shifting away from him when he leaned over her and set his hand near her ribs. Kol smirked, leaning down until they were nose to nose and Anna stopped breathing. He watched her eyes fall to his lips, his stomach twisting warmly.

"I know who you are," he said softly, and Anna's eyes flew back up to meet his, her pupils dilated. Her eyes narrowed suddenly.

"No you don't," she snorted, shoving him off of her with her elbow and climbing off the bed, using the opposite side he was sitting just to avoid him. Kol watched her go with a slow turn of his head, still smirking.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'd be dead, that's why," she snapped, bending down to grab one of her shoes. Kol quirked an eyebrow, noting that bit of information as he waited for Anna to catch up. She froze halfway through pulling on her sneaker, her head snapping up to stare at him with wide eyes. "You son of a bitch."

"I love that people don't even have to be awake for them to be compelled," said Kol, standing smoothly and rounding Rebekah's bed. Anna glared at him, countering his steps until she was a safe enough distance away.

"You reversed your compulsion on me?" she accused him, stomping her foot into her shoe angrily. Kol shrugged.

"You sound surprised," he said with amusement, his eyes trailing down the front of her body. Nothing. He had absolutely no interest in her, and that was strange, because he was interested in practically everyone. He frowned in curiosity. "What would happen if I kissed you?"

Anna started, blinking at him in shock; she sputtered for a moment, looking away. It was kind of adorable actually. Kol walked toward her, bending his knees slightly so he could look her in the eye. "Annabelle," he stressed, grinning wickedly. "Would I remember how I feel about you?" she exhaled hard, her posture relaxing, like she was giving up.

"I'm sorry, Kol," she said, and he could hear the sincerity in her words. "I can't be around you, it's too hard."

"What is so difficult about it?" he growled without heat, reaching out to grab her shoulders and keeping her in place. Anna's jaw clenched, trying unsuccessfully to pull away. Kol tightened his grip, stilling her. "I reversed my compulsion; you can tell me everything, so do it!"

"_No._" Even when she had the option to tell him she refused; suppressing a snarl, Kol shoved her away, backing off and heading straight for the door.

"Then leave." Anna opened her mouth to protest, but Kol cut her off with a sharp look and wrenched open the door. "If you're not going to be helpful, then leave."

Anna swallowed, shifting uncomfortably on her feet for a moment, before she straightened her spine and did as he told her, leaving without another word or a glance at him. For a split second, Kol thought she actually looked hurt by his dismissal; but she was gone before he could decide whether or not he cared.

"She doesn't have the luxury you do, you know," said Elijah quietly as Kol came back downstairs. His brother was sitting alone, nursing a glass of whisky, and his voice made Kol stop in his tracks on his way down to the basement. He turned his head to look at Elijah, keeping his face blank, but Elijah wasn't even looking at him.

"Hmm?" prompted Kol, raising an eyebrow expectantly. Elijah narrowed his eyes at his glass, lifting it to his eyes for a moment before taking a drink.

"Anna," he said, but Kol knew that's who he was talking about in the first place. His irritation peaked once again; Kol settled his weight on one leg and folded his arms over his chest. Elijah flicked his eyes to him briefly. "You're upset with her because she doesn't want to tell you what you want, but it's different for her, Kol."

"Glad the pretenses are dropped," snapped Kol. "Go on then, what's so different?"

"Anna doesn't forget like you do," Elijah answered. "She has to live with her memories while you get a clean slate; she loves you so much and you…" he sighed, setting his glass down on the arm on his chair and standing up. "I'm sure Rebekah would be much more eloquent in explaining this, she believes in true love and star crossed lovers-"

"Rebekah's an idiot," interject Kol smoothly. "And I'd rather have memories than pieces, so you can save your speech." Kol backed away, shrugging at his brother as he continued his journey to the basement. Anna wouldn't tell him anything, and his siblings were utterly useless; he'd just have to figure it out himself. And he _would_.

The basement was still a mess from the other day when he'd torn through it, and Kol made a face at the ground as he kicked away a few loose pages of parchment out of his path; it would take him ages to get everything sorted again. With a quick glance over his shoulder, kol decided that the best course of action would be to go through someone else's things for a change. Likes Rebekah's; he remembered her being invested in Annabelle before the whole curse business.

It wasn't hard to find something to interest him, Rebekah wasn't someone to document her memories with anything other than mementoes that only she knew the meaning too. Nonetheless he found a scrapbook that looked like it could have been made when Anna was human, and he leafed through it quickly as she tried to find something familiar.

Pieces of lace, some type of flower he didn't know the name of, a worn and faded passage he could barely make out; it was all meaningless to him. If he had the context maybe he could understand the bizarre way Rebekah collected her memories, but he was practically lost in the sea of uselessness. Tossing the book away, Kol was just about to turn and look through something else when a bit of gold caught his eye. Backtracking, he reached for it, pulling a thing chain free from between two of Rebekah's books; he twirled the chain around his fingers, catching the pendent dangling from it between his thumb and forefinger. It was set with pears and carved out of gold, honestly it was beautiful work, but it caught Kol's eye because he remembered Anna wearing it.

Instead of being annoyed that his siblings kept her things and didn't tell him, he was determined to find more.

It could have been hours or minutes later that Kol felt someone walk up behind him in the basement. He was scanning one of Finn's later dated journals for anything about himself or Anna when he felt eyes on the back of his neck. He glanced away from the pages, jaw clenched in irritation at being interrupted, and turned around to snap at whoever it was who'd come to bother him. He snapped it shut again almost immediately.

"Bonnie Bennett," he said brightly, marking his page and closing the book in his hand. He grinned at her tightly. "And how can I help you?"

Bonnie wasn't looking at him, she was staring at a few of his journals, her hand ghosting across the binding. Kol's eyebrow quirked, watching her walk closer, feeling extremely put off by her expressionless face.

"_Hello_?" he asked again, trying to catch her eye. This time she did look at him, her eyes flashing black so quickly it made him blink and wonder if he even saw it at all. Bonnie's shoulder's relaxed, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

"Klaus asked me for another favor," she said, moving toward him, twisting her hands together in apparent nervousness. Kol's eyebrows pulled together slightly, eyeing her carefully. He'd maybe met her once, but the contradiction in her personality – going from calm and disinterested, to coy and then to nervous – made absolutely no sense to him. It was like she was trying to figure out how to act around him.

"What sort of favor?" asked Kol, turning away from her and going back to Finn's journal. He didn't have the patience for silly girls who wasted his time; especially not witches who wouldn't get to the point.

"He wants me to wipe your memory," Bonnie said, making Kol snort. He didn't bother looking up at her, shaking his head as a smirk appeared on his face.

"Good luck with that, darling," he murmured, flipping the page and running his finger across the ink. He could have sworn he saw his name…

"I don't get what the big deal is," said Bonnie suddenly, interrupting Kol's train of thought. He looked up with a frown, uncaring about her opinion. Bonnie continued anyways, looking away with an ill disguised sneer. "She's a little pretty, I guess, but why is everyone falling over each other trying to keep her safe?"

Kol straightened slowly. "I don't think anyone's trying to do that, love."

She snorted. "Except for you," she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Everyone's trying to save you, but you're trying to save her."

Kol snorted again. "Is that what I'm doing? Since you seem to know so much about me, why don't you enlighten me on your other _opinions_."

Bonnie didn't even falter she turned around surely and walked up to him, stopping inside his personal space like she knew him. Kol barely resisted the urge to snap his teeth at her neck. "I know that you can't feel anything for her; that's why you're down here, isn't it? Trying to find your feelings for..._her_." She practically spit out the word, looking away with a huffing. "I'm so disappointed that you don't remember me yet," she said softly, but the way she said it made it sound...off.

Kol's eyes narrowed, little warning bells going off in his head. Very carefully he closed the journal in his hand and stepped away, never taking his eyes off the witch. It only hit him then, that she was a witch and-

"Oh," Bonnie breathed, reaching out toward his face. He leaned away from her touch warily, his eyes flicking to her fingers and back to her face as his face twisted in mild disgust. Her eyes went out of focus briefly, glazing before the refocused on his face. "You remember me, I can feel it."

He dropped the journal to the ground, completely prepared to get the hell out of the basement, when black, dark magic twisted up to the surface of her skin. Before everything went sideways, Kol had time to utter a sharp, hiss. "_Shit_."


	10. Chapter 10

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd. Dedicated to my lovely friend kindofamy for her birthday.

* * *

Kol was getting tired of waking up in strange places, no really, he'd had enough. He opened his eyes with a snarl, barely taking a moment to collect his bearings before he was climbing out of the bed and heading for the closests exit. Which happened to be the window of-

"Kol."

The sickly sweet sound of his name being called behind him made him freeze, his head tilting to the side slightly out of...irritation. Kol heard her shift behind him, the click of her shoes on the hardwood floor bringing her closer to him. There was a moment where all he wanted to do was leap from the window instead of dealing with this bitch, but before he could execute it, Bonnie was placing her hand on his arm.

Jaw tightening, Kol swiveled his head around to glare down at her; there was something so off about her face, it was more noticeable now that he could properly see her, no doubt that she was being possessed by the witch who had cursed Anna. What was her name supposed to be? Cataleya? Kol could barely be bothered to care.

Suddenly a thought came to him. The witch could bring his memory back; she said she could take it away, how hard could it be to reverse it? Besides, she said she wanted him to remember, what harm could it do? The image of Anna's arm covered in blood rose to the forefront of his mind, but he had saved her once and he could do it again if he needed to.

Brushing off Bonnie's hand, Kol stepped to the side and started away from her once again, feeling her eyes follow him as she strode carefully around the room; taking in the various things the teenage witch had decorating her room.

"How did I get in here?" he asked casually, nudging the edge of the phone sitting on the bedside table. It was off, figures.

"I brought you," said Bonnie (_Cataleya_, Kol reminded himself firmly. There was no need to call her by her vessel's name) immediately. "I thought it would be better if we were alone."

Slightly confused and a little creeped out, Kol turned his head to look at Cataleya. "And why would you think that?"

Her eyes narrowed immediately. "Because _Anna_ was there," she hissed, taking a step closer to him. Kol looked away, shaking his head. He didn't bother telling her that he told Anna to go, she was obviously delusional. He caught her reflection in one of the photographs on the way; the deep black veins he saw in the basement wiggling beneath the surface of her skin. "She ruins _everything_."

"Completely delusional," Kol muttered under his breath, closing his eyes briefly to try and control his temper. His hissed suddenly as pain shot down his arm, twisting around to find his forearm completely split open. He grimaced as his skin began to stitch itself up, turning his eyes onto Cataleya; she was practically shaking with rage, the sclera of her eyes a sickly grey color.

"I was wrong," she said, her voice cracking. "You don't remember me well enough."

And apparently that was a problem.

.

Anna didn't even know why she was crying anymore.

She'd left the house and gone directly back to her room, but the minute she opened the door she had frozen. Her stuff was still throw haphazardly around the room, half of it in a suitcase but most of it on the floor; everything was happening too fast, and suddenly it was all too much to deal with.

She wanted to run away so_ badly_; she didn't care if it was cowardly, she couldn't do it anymore. And what was the point anyway? She'd been through this before and every time she was the one who got hurt - physically and emotionally - Rebekah was right. She was too tired to do this anymore.

Anna paused in her packing, straightening up and pressing her hands to her eyes to try and compose herself. Kol told her to leave, that was the only reason she was even packing; if she wasn't going to help him remember then there wasn't a point in her being there. There wasn't a witch she knew who was powerful enough to undo their situation.

Anna sighed and let her arm fall to the side, closing her eyes briefly and shaking her head before she sniffed and started packing her things once again. "What do you want, Elijah?"

There was a subtle shift of Elijah's shoes on the floor, and Anna listened to him clear his throat softly before he spoke. She didn't bother turning around, he had her attention but he didn't deserve her respect.

"I know we haven't always gotten along," started Elijah carefully, moving to stand next to her, watching as Anna pulled out a few of the shirts she had flung into her suitcase and refold them again. He continued when Anna didn't say a word. "Though that may be an understatement considering-"

"If you want something Elijah just ask," interrupted Anna, pausing in her folding to snap at him.

"You're leaving," he said instead, turning his head away and slipping his hands into his pockets. "That's a shame."

Anna glanced at him briefly and resumed packing, moving slower as she waited for Elijah to get to the point. "Why do you think that?" she prompted, turning and headed for the dresser to grab the few bits of jewelry she had scattered across the surface.

"Well Kol's reversed his compulsion over you," Anna turned her head to stare blankly at him over her shoulder. Elijah stared back unfazed. "My brother's predictably unpredictable, the fact that let even let you go-"

"He told me to leave," Anna interrupted again. Grabbing her jewelry she headed back to her suitcase and tossed them inside carelessly. "Which is what I'm doing. You don't need me around to wipe his memory and I don't want to be here. Just...give me a heads up about where he goes next time."

"I don't plan on wiping his memory, Annabelle," said Elijah simply. Anna's eyes widened, looking up at the older vampire with a mixture of horror and confusion. "This should have been fixed decades ago, but we were all too scared imagining the outcome to bother trying."

"Elijah," breathed Anna, stepping away from him. "Elijah what did you do?"

He closed his eyes, tucking his chin to his chest, pulling a hand out of his pocket and running it through his hair. "Kol is currently with Cataleya." Horrified, Anna felt the breath leave her lungs, shaking as she tried to get herself to move - but she was froze to the spot, and Elijah kept talking, looking at her from under his eyebrows without expression. "It's time you both stopped suffering."

.

Kol's lip twitched as he watched Cataleya have her little mental meltdown. So what if he didn't remember her? From what he recalled, there wasn't much he needed to remember about her. Klaus was the one who had any contact with her. She was delusional, obsessed, and completely-

Interrupting his train of thought by climbing onto the bed standing between them, Cataleya grabbed at him, her reflexes making his head spin. The possessed bitch could _move_, and Kol barely had time to step out of the way before she lunged at him again, grabbing the front of his shirt and dragging him back to her. She dropped to her knees on the bed, staring at him with wide eyes. For a moment Kol was genuinely frightened; she was a powerful witch, and for some reason she was fixated on him.

It was touch that caused the memories to resurface, it was actually clever if Kol wanted to admit it, especially seeing as how he had been in love with Annabelle during the time she was cursed. Kol felt his stomach churn, his past coming to the forefront of his mind as Cataleya's fingers twitched against his neck. It had never felt this wrong when it was Anna...

_ When Klaus had told him the name of the witch, Kol's blood had run cold. He hadn't wanted to leave Annabelle and risk the chance that he wasn't there for her when she woke in transition, but he had to, to make sure..._

The witch was actually waiting for him, her long dark hair plaited over one shoulder, her caramel colored skin shining brightly in the moonlight. Kol was furious,she didn't even have the decency to look ashamed.

Cataleya opened her mouth, but before she could utter a sound Kol had his hand around her throat. She choked, grasping at his wrist to try and pry him off her. "You tried to kill an innocent girl," he snarled against her face, his fangs bared. "She belongs to me, witch, I take that as an offence."

"You said I belonged to you," she choked out, and his grip around her neck loosened slightly. Cataleya gasped for air, coughing as she struggled to breathe. "Why are you so upset over her? She's nothing-"

"Are you insane?" hissed Kol, his eyebrows furrowing in genuine confusion. "I haven't seen you for months, nor have I wanted to," he shook his head, disgusted at the thought of her now. "Stay away from me, and stay the hell away from Annabelle."

Cataleya's eyes widened, comically, her body going slack for a moment and forcing Kol to pull away from her sharply so he wouldn't have to hold her weight. She stumbled backwards onto the ground, staring up at him. "She's still alive? That's...not possible."

Kol stared at her, feeling numb once again. She was right it wasn't possible. "Not as a human," he said softly, meeting her eyes. He could still smell Annabelle's blood, it must have been on his clothes... "As long as I live so will she."

"You-" her voice cracked as she spoke, pushing herself onto her feet, stumbling pathetically as she tried to regain her footing. "You care for her?"

Kol actually felt a little sorry for her. "Stupid girl...I am utterly in love with her." Without another word he turned to go, listening to the witch he left behind struggle to go after him.

"We're supposed to be together."

Kol felt bile rise up in his throat, blindly shoving the witch's vessel away from him; shaking as he came out of the forced memory. He could feel rage lingering his his chest, along with hopelessness, love, desperation and a myriad of other emotions he didn't know he had been capable of feeling. That was why he never felt when he remembered, and it was a good thing too, because if he felt so strongly for Annabelle there would have been no way he would have let her go.

Teeth clenched, Kol turned his eyes onto Cataleya, watching her brace her hand on the desk she had landed in front of as she climbed to her feet. He wondered suddenly if Anna was in much pain, because surely she must have felt that.

The bitch hadn't just dabbled in dark magic, she had_ immersed herself_ in it. She had bound herself to him and him to Anna, which wasn't only invasive and inappropriate but also completely suicidal. If Anna died, he died - Original Vampire or not. Whatever spirits Cataleya had to guide her were doing an absolute shit job.

"Don't you understand now?" asked Cataleya, limping slightly as she started toward him once again. "We're supposed to be together." Yes, he remembered her uttering something about that delusion in the past. She ignored him as he barely managed to suppress a snort. "And without Annabelle we can be."

Kol laughed; he couldn't help it, he laughed straight in her face. She was mentally unstable, she had to be; there was nothing about the memory she had showed him that suggested he had any sort of feeling for her. And while his mind might not have been his own for the time being, he knew without a doubt that no matter what he learned, Cataleya would never be significant in it.

Her nostrils flared, and Kol snorted again, because it was just so amusing to him that this was all taking place inside a teenage girl's bedroom; for God's sake there were stuffed animals on the windowsill. Cataleya barely managed to gain his attention when she spoke again, and it didn't help his mood. "You're not even sorry-?"

"Sorry?!" Kol interrupted loudly, his eyebrows shooting up. "You want me to be_sorry?_ Sweetheart," he drawled, walking around the bed and stopping in front of her. "Sorry is the _last _thing I am."

"Aren't you sick of her?" she begged, touching his chest, her eyes pleading. "Every time you remember her you go through the same pain...She can't possibly be worth it!"

"Do you know how much trouble you've caused me?" asked Kol, all trace of humor gone from his voice. He knocked her hand away, watching her swallow and hoping she was scared of him. "I've spent the last few days walking around like an idiot trying to figure out what was going on, do you really think I wont rip you apart?"

"You can't-"

"You can't possibly be that stupid, of course I'm going to," Kol snarled, grabbing her arm when she made a move to get away without a second thought and regretting it immediately.

He was seriously getting sick of passing out.


	11. Chapter 11

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd. This was supposed to be updated over the weekend, but I got distracted by HOW MANY FEELINGS THIS CHAPTER GAVE ME. I can only imagine what it will do to you. Enjoy, loves.

* * *

Kol was utterly unsurprised to wake up in pain, held up against a wall with only vervain soaked roped to keep him up. He was a bit curious to know how the witch had managed to fashion a torture chamber in the Bennett witches' basement in such a short amount of time, and if she just carried around a bunch of circular wooden objects for inflicting pain or if those were just lying around.

_Really_ though.

Flicking his eyes onto one of his arms, he remembered the first dream he'd had, just after seeing Anna. Something similar had happened then, with the hollow wood; obviously Cataleya had a fetish for hanging people on walls and bleeding them out. Kol snarled, thinking of Anna and remembering the rage he had felt in the memory that'd been forced on him.

Movement out of the corner of his eyes caught his attention, and Kol turned his head to see Cataleya frozen in place staring back, more of those wooden circles in her hands. "You're not supposed to be awake," she said, sounding surprised. Kol sneered, sliding his eyes away to check how much damage she'd done so far.

"You overestimate yourself," he muttered. She must have just started because there were seven of those things in total: two in each arm, and three in his chest. "How often has this happened, anyway?" he asked casually, his lips turning down thoughtfully as he took a closer look at the wood; he could just make out a pattern carved along the rim, and if he had to guess it probably matched the one Anna had on her skin.

Cataleya didn't answer him right away, instead she moved to stand in front of him, weighing one of her cursed wooden circles in her hand for a moment before pressing it lightly to his abdomen. Kol watched her impassive face carefully through narrowed eyes as her head tilted to the side. "This? Once or twice..." she started softly, sliding the wood up his stomach and stopping just below his sternum, between his ribs. "Only when you need some help remembering."

"I seem to be doing just fine without your _help_," hissed Kol, one of his arms jerking out of instinct. He went still just after that as Cataleya's eyes snapped up to meet his.

"I didn't choose to do this to you, Kol," said Cataleya, her voice breathless. "You did this to yourself; your family did this." she took a deep breath and held it for a moment, her eyes suddenly shining. "All I wanted was for Annabelle to die, so you could let her go and be with me, like you were meant to-" without warning she forced the wood through his skin, causing him to clench his teeth to keep from shouting in pain. Kol struggled to keep himself composed and his eyes on the witch, his wrists straining on his bindings. "-But you keep _saving_ her...I had no choice."

"When I'm close to her..." started Kol, his voice sounding strained; but Cataleya was already nodding along with his words. "She dies."

"Then you went and bound yourself to her," she snarled. Her confession surprised him, he had thought she was the one to do it. It made a little more sense that he did, she must have fucked with the spell - bastardized it into a curse that affected both him and Anna, because they were linked and hurting him meant hurting her. "I had no choice," she said again. "I couldn't risk you dying too."

He still had no idea what she was doing to him now, maybe trying to unbind them, but honestly he wouldn't be surprised if she was just trying to hurt him for no reason at all. Cataleya turned, reaching behind her to grab another piece of wood to stick into him; without hesitation, Kol braced himself and wrenched his left arm away from the wall, pulling the bolt the rope was tied to clean out of the wall. His arm shot out just as Cataleya turned back, wrapping his hand around her throat.

She choked, clawing at his wrist with one hand and reaching up to push against his face with the other. He knew she would tried harder than that, and he was almost prepared for the onslaught of exploding blood vessels in his brain. His grip loosened, and she managed to step out of his grip, stumbling backward slightly as she massaged her throat.

Kol rubbed his temple with his now freed hand, wondering idly if she would punish him for that (and then smirking because he couldn't help the dirty things that popped into his head at the thought); he stilled when a flash of movement caught his eye, and he blinked, startled to see Anna standing at the bottom of the stairs. She caught his eye, and he watched her breath catch in her throat.

Cataleya didn't even notice her; her eyes were red and her lip was pulled up over her teeth as she raised her head to glare at Kol. She straightened, but in a flash of vampire speed Anna was behind her, sinking her teeth into Bonnie's neck and draining her. Kol quirked an eyebrow, sorta turned on by the sight of it; but now really wasn't the time, and he turned his head to undo the rope around his other wrist, his fingers burning against the vervain before he finally managed to shake his hand free. By then, Anna had dropped Bonnie's body to the ground and was breathing hard, her hand shaking slightly as she wiped blood off her lips.

Then it was silence between them; Anna wouldn't meet his eye and Kol was too uncomfortable to care. He needed the wood out of his body, and his fingers played along the rim of one in his forearm for a second or two before he grimaced and decided against it.

"Thank you," Kol heard himself say, glancing at Anna. She swallowed, nodding, and still refused to look at him; he wasn't sure if that bothered him or not. Anna looked up suddenly, her eyes on the hole in his skin, and walked up to him. She reached for his arm, frowning when he pulled away.

"What are you-?"

"I don't want you hurt," interrupted Kol, making shooing motions with his hand when she tried to touch him again. He could feel her gaze on his face as he just did it himself, managing to get a grip on the wood in his forearm and pulling it out. Immediate relief followed, and Kol opened his mouth to tell Anna he had everything under control; he made the mistake of looking up at her, and his voice died in his throat.

There was an unfathomable expression on her face, and it sent shivers down Kol's spine. It was gone in an instant, and with a short nod she turned away, rubbing her arm and staring at Bonnie's body on the ground. Anna stopped and looked back, chewing on her lower lip as confliction warred behind her eyes.

"What?" asked Kol, reaching for another one of those things in his arm, sighing hard as he ripped it out and dropped it to the ground. He almost asked her again what the matter was, but before he could he heard her inhale sharply.

"You wanted to know what would happen if you kissed me," she said tightly, earning his full attention. Anna backtracked, reaching out to place her hand on the side of his face and leaning up to kiss him, pressing her body against his as she did. For a moment Kol didn't move, he was too shocked, because up until that moment Anna had done everything short of punching him in the face to keep from touching him - and now she was kissing him.

But the feeling of her lips against his made him cave, and he inhaled deeply as he kissed her back. Something like a switched flipped in the back of his mind, and everything he thought he was missing - the feelings he had for her, the memories of her that linked to other memories - came flooding in. The smell of her around him, the taste of her on his tongue, the way her body molded against his was all familiar; and Kol pressed his hand to the small of her back, the other going to the back of her head as he deepened the kiss.

Honestly Kol thought there would be more pain, at least for her; and he pulled away from her mouth reluctantly but also hoping wouldn't die on him. Anna's fingers played across the side of his neck, breathing hard despite her not needing to and staring at his lips.

"It doesn't hurt to touch you," she whispered, leaning up to brush her lips against his once more. Kol didn't hesitate to kiss her back this time, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her against him. She pulled away from him slightly to mumble against his lips. "Why doesn't this hurt?"

Kol didn't care, and he would have told her so if he hadn't been interrupted by the sound of crashing wood on the ground floor above them, followed by a high pitched "Bonnie!". Kol set Anna back onto the ground as Caroline flew downstairs, her eyes widening when she spotted her friend's body lying on the floor.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" she shouted, the volume of her voice making Kol wince. He was tried all of a sudden; blinking heavily, he leaned back against the wall he had previously been tied to, sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor. Anna followed him down, ignoring Caroline as well as the baby vampire tended to her (surprisingly, still alive) friend.

"Shut up, Caroline," Anna snapped when the blonde's voice became too intrusive, her hands glancing across the wood Cataleya had stuck into him. She pulled them out one by one, and with every wound that closed shut the more tired Kol felt. He caught her hand before she could move to the ones in his chest, leaning his head back against the wall as his eyes dropped.

Anna stilled for a moment, her eyes softening. She pulled her hand out of his and pressed it to his cheek. "I'll take care of you." she whispered, leaning forward to kiss him softly; he passed out beneath her lips, and Anna let her hand linger on his face for a moment when she pulled away.

.

Kol walked back into the mansion after dealing with Cataleya, practically shaking with rage as he stalked across the foyer; running his hand across his mouth as he thought about the witch and what she had done to Annabelle. Because he couldn't protect her he had to turn her into a vampire, something he hadn't wanted to do so soon. Maybe in a year or two, maybe never; but he didn't have the option now.

Kol pushed open his bedroom door, finding Anna lying dead above the sheets and Finn standing over her with his arms folded across his chest. He looked up when Kol entered, glaring as he strode away from the bedside and up to him.

"Where the _hell_ have you been?"

Kol ignored him, moving around Finn without a word and over to Annabelle's side. She wasn't awake yet, good. Swallowing, Kol reached out to brush the back of his fingers across her cheek, hating how cold she felt to the touch. He could feel Finn's eyes burning into him, and he bit his tongue to keep from snarling when his brother spoke again.

"You left her here alone," Finn accused him, his voice thick with disbelief. "Why?"

"I have my reasons," murmured Kol and nothing more. The silence stretched between them for a few minutes, and then without a word, Finn turned on his heel and left, slamming the door behind him and probably waking the entire house.

But it didn't wake Annabelle.

Crouching beside the bed, Kol folding his hands on the bedspread and watched Anna's face for any sign of movement. But like everyone else who transitioned into a vampire, she came back without warning, flying into a sitting position with a hard gasp that scared the daylights out of Kol. He rose quickly, grabbing onto her arms to keep her from hurting herself or him while she calmed down.

"Shh, love, it's alright, I'm here," whispered Kol, pushing her hair out of her face as he caught her attention. Annabelle gripped the front of his shirt, pulling him closer to her. He did as he was bidden, sitting next to her and wrapping his arms around her tightly. Swallowing thickly, Kol pressed his face into her hair, muttering nonsensically into her hair as her breathing slowed and she relaxed against him.

"That woman," Annabelle muttered into his chest, shaking her head. "That _woman_-"

"You're a vampire, Annabelle," Kol interrupted, feeling her still against him. She pulled away slowly, staring up at him blankly. Kol felt his stomach start to sink. "You're in transition."

"W...What?"

Lowering his eyes, Kol focused on keeping his voice even. "What Cataleya - that woman - did to you...I didn't have a choice love. I could risk losing you." Annabelle was silent, her expression remaining blank until Kol reached up to touch her cheek. "Anna?"

"You killed me?"

Kol's hand fell away from her face, feeling his stomach drop. "You would have died anyway," he said in defense of himself. "I just made sure you would come back."

Whatever she was thinking didn't show on her face, and Kol found himself wishing she would talk to him. Finally she nodded, leaning forward and resting her cheek on his shoulder. "What happens now?"

"You feed."

.

It wasn't that simple though. At first it was just a dull ache, but days went by and suddenly Anna was in so much pain when he touched her that Kol had to go to Niklaus and request that he drag Cataleya back to the house for a word. Their trip was postponed in order to give Annabelle time to adjust to her vampirism, which Kol thought was generous of his siblings, especially when he had offered to remain behind while they went on ahead. But Rebekah adored Anna, and Klaus wouldn't leave without his sister.

Cataleya wasn't helpful, they couldn't compel her to tell them and it would have been useless to torture her. All Kol knew was that Annabelle couldn't stand to be around him, and the promise he had made to the witch about keeping her alive was starting to become thin.

Kol was keeping the witch though, in the dungeon where he had found Annabelle. Was it cruel to keep a woman tied to a chair? Yes, and he didn't care. All she did was stare at him as he lounged in a chair across from her staring back. He could be halfway across the ocean by now if it weren't for her, he, his siblings and a _human_ Annabelle along with them.

"I don't think you understand how little I care for you," said Kol, flicking an invisible blemish of his pants. Cataleya blinked, looking started for a moment; he hadn't said a word for hours, he never did. Kol went on dryly. "But you did something to my wife and I want to know _what_."

"W-Wife?" stammered Cataleya, straightening in her chair. Kol nodded, his eyebrows lifting in mock surprise.

"Did I not mention that?" he asked, looking away to examine his fingernails. "Hmm, it must have slipped my mind... _Well_, it was a small ceremony; we had it here, but Rebekah and Annabelle did a lovely job. I'm surprised you didn't hear all the noise-"

She interrupted him with a shriek, jerking wildly in her bindings. Kol moved to the edge of his seat, leaning over his knees to glare at Cataleya as she pulled uselessly at the metal chaining her to the chair; tears spilled out of her eyes as she stilled, glaring back at him.

"Tell me what you did," he hissed.

.

"-No, no, no, no, _no_."

Kol tightened his grip on Anna's shoulders, tilting his head down to catch her eye again. She was crying, he was crying - it was an awful mess. His siblings were waiting for him at the ship that would take them home and he was...saying goodbye. Even though he was older and stronger she managed to push him off her, pressing her clasped hands to her mouth and shaking her head as she pleaded desperately with him.

"I _have_ to," Kol insisted again, for the hundredth time, catching her face in his hands and turning her head up so she would meet his eyes. She held his gaze for as long as she could before her face crumpled; closing his eyes to try and fight down his misery, Kol pressed his forehead against hers. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Annabelle. This is the _only_ way."

"She's still getting what she wants," Annabelle ground out through clenched teeth, pulling away to look at him, pushing his hands off her. "You're _leaving!_" she cried, her eyebrows pulled together as she stared at him accusingly. "_Forgetting_ me!"

Kol shook his head, even though he knew she was right. He was running away because he was scared and he was leaving her because he wanted her to have a chance in the world without him. "You will die," Kol started, his voice even and serious, forcing Annabelle to still. "If I...If I stay with you, if I _know_ you."

He watched her bring her bring her hands back up to her face, looking away from him as she tried to get her sobs under control; it gave Kol the chance to get himself together as well, turning his eyes onto the ground because when he pushed away the crushing sorrow all he felt was guilt. He loved this girl and he was abandoning her because a silly little witch had an obsession and a bit of power.

"Annabelle," he began, his voice catching. She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, her brown eyes wide and begging him not to go. "I can make you forget," watching her eyes widen further, he continued quickly. "If you want me too. It'll be hard to live an eternity knowing me and not having me."

She snorted softly, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes in irritation. "Don't you think highly of yourself," she spat, leaving a tense silence between them for a moment before her shoulders dropped and she turned to face him. She wasn't crying anymore, but her eyes were still red and wet. Annabelle reached for his hand, holding it in both of hers. "I'd rather die than forget about you."

Leaving his hand in hers, Kol stepped closer and wrapped his free hand around the back of her head, leaning down to kiss her one last time before he forgot everything about her. Annabelle inhaled through her nose, rising on her toes and pressing herself against him, trapping her hands between their chests as they savored their very last moment together; and Kol thought-

He would never let that happen.


	12. Chapter 12

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** M  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd. I have been so busy I've barely had time to breathe. Luckily I wrote most of this at work today, lol. The rating has also been changed to M for the sex you'll see later in the chapter. Happy readings!

* * *

Anna tossed away the last of Cataleya's wood, watching Kol's body heal before her eyes. There was still no pain on her part when she touched him; she didn't know how long it would last though. She carded her fingers through his hair, taking whatever opportunity she'd been given to drink him in. This was the fastest he'd ever remembered her, maybe because of the pell Esther had done to bind all her children together; whatever the reason, the few short days since Anna had seen Kol in the Grill felt longer than the weeks and months it used to take for him to even remember her name.

He had wanted to know what would happen if he kissed her. The answer was everything.

Anna's hand stilled as Kol stirred, his eyes flying open but making no other move besides that. He stared at her with the recognition Anna had been craving for, for centuries. "I remember you," he said conversationally, reaching up to run his thumb over her lower lip. "I miss your accent."

Anna shrugged, rolling her eyes upward as a smile twitched on her face. "Gotta blend in somehow."

"Shame," he muttered, taking her chin in his hand and leaning forward to kiss her softly. "Of course, it's not the only thing I miss."

Anna shivered, resting her hands on his stomach as his breath washed across her lips. "Kol-" she started, her voice catching in her throat as he dragged his mouth across her jaw. "Kol," she said again, more insistently. "I don't know how long this will last."

"How long what will last?" he repeated, grazing his teeth over her neck and repeating the motion again with his tongue.

Anna's eyes fluttered closed, and she leaned into him. She'd been away from him for so long,...he'd been with other people just to take off the edge of loneliness, but they weren't Kol. He'd known her when she was human, she _loved_ him, and she'd never found anyone who even compared to him.

His hand falling to her hip snapped her back to reality, and Anna reluctantly pulled away; moving her hand to the center of his chest as she did to keep him...restrained. "Until you can hurt me again," she said softly, watching his eyebrows quirk down in confusion before he remembered what she'd been talking about. His eyes focused on a place over her shoulder, almost looking upset, but he didn't talk about the curse; instead-

"Where the fuck did that bitch go?"

Anna turned her head; Caroline was gone, so was Bonnie. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, feeling a spark of annoyance for Elijah. "Caroline took her," she explained, her expression turning dry when Kol raised an eyebrow at her. "Elijah tasked her services after he told _me_ that you were here with Cataleya."

The difference between Kol with his memories and Kol without them, was that he thought the way Elijah and Anna bickered with each other was _hilarious_. The corner of his mouth twitched, and she rolled her eyes - already nostalgic for the Kol who ignored her and found no amusement in her feuds with his older brother.

"So Elijah has the witch," mused Kol, leaning back against the wall, staring at her with a heavy gaze. "And you and I can touch," he continued, emphasizing his point by raising his hand and pushing her hair behind her shoulder. "I have my memories and now that I have you..." he trailed off, moving his hand from her shoulder to her cheek. He swallowed, and she stopped breathing. "I refuse to give you up again, Annabelle."

Anna's throat ached. After centuries of waiting for him to remember her fully, he finally said the words she used to dream of hearing. She would tell herself she was stupid, pining after a man who had insisted on leaving her for her own good; but he loved her, and he wanted her, and she couldn't lose him again - she refused.

Her resolve broken, and in an instead Anna had his face in her hands, her mouth crashing over his. He snarled back against her teeth, threading one hand into her hair briefly before pressing his palms to her back. The breath whooshed from her lungs as Kol flipped her onto her back, pressing his thigh between her legs as he settled over her. Anna arched as Kol pulled her against his chest, her fingers trailing down his neck, over his chest and pressing into his ribs.

"I love you," groaned Anna, lifting her hips as Kol's hand slid over her stomach and across the front of her jeans, the friction of his touch between her thighs making her blood boil. "I'll always love you."

Kol smiled against her mouth, an honest-to-god smile that erased what little doubt Anna had about his feelings for her. She pushed him away just to see it, the genuine expression on his face, before he leaned back down to capture her lips again.

It was short lived though; just before Anna had a chance to kiss him back, Kol was pulling away, laying feather-light kisses down her neck as his hands skimmed her sides, pushing her shirt up and running his hand across her ribs. Moving down her body, Kol breathed hotly against her breastbone, his eyes flashing up to meet her momentarily. Anna's stomach clenched as Kol's fingertips passed across the lace of her bra seconds before he pulled it down and exposed her breasts. He ran his tongue across one pert nipple, sucking it into his mouth briefly before biting down gently. Anna's grip on his sides tightened, gouging her nails into his skin and dragging them down, leaving angry red welts in their wake. Kol retaliated by pressing his knee harder against her cunt, his teeth digging deeper into her breast.

His name fell from her lips with an embarrassing amount of need, her hands falling to his belt and fumbling with the buckle like a teenager. Kol snarled into her chest as her fingers brushed against the bulge in his jeans, pulling far enough away from her to remove her shirt and flinging it across the room like it offended him. Breathing hard, Kol sat back on his heels and stared down at her; Anna's hands stilling against his crotch.

"God you're beautiful," Kol murmured, running his hands down the inside of her thighs. Anna could feel the bite marks he'd given her start to heal, but she could only image what she looked like with the carvings in her skin. His eyes glanced across the one across her chest, reaching out to trace the edges with his fingertips. He flashed her a grin. "And other romantic crap like that."

Anna beamed, pushing herself up and onto her knees while Kol slid his hands under her ass and pulled her into his lap. Their lips brushed as Anna wrapped an arm around his shoulder, foreheads touching as Kol's hand slid up her back to unclasp her bra.

Their lips melded together again, Kol inhaling sharply into her mouth as Anna ground her hips into his. Kol's hand slid into her hair, gripping it tightly and deepening the kiss. Somewhere between Kol's teeth sinking into her lower lip and Anna undoing the fly of his jeans they had started rocking together; Anna breathing heavily as Kol swiped his tongue over the blood smeared across her lip. She slipped her hand beneath the waistband of his underwear and wrapped her hand around the hot length of his cock, causing Kol to buck his hips into her hand, making her grin into his mouth. "Anna_belle_," he warned as she ignored him, tightening her grip and pumping him lazily for a moment before he flashed his fangs in her face and sunk his teeth into her neck.

Anna's grip went slack, and her mouth fell open in pleasure/pain as Kol feed off her blood. Breathing ragged, Anna clutched at Kol's shoulder, feeling him lower them to the ground, his mouth never leaving her neck until her back touched the ground. He could never tell her he loved her again for as long as they lived, and she would always know how he felt. Blood sharing was more than personal, and Kol was the only person she would ever let taste her like this.

Anna's vision was slightly hazy when Kol pulled away from her, wiping her blood off his lips with the back of his hand. She stared at him, feeling warmth spread through her chest as he leaned down to trail his mouth down her stomach, biting her hip with blunt teeth and leaving streaks of her blood across her skin.

Kol peeled her jeans off her legs, tossing her shoes over his shoulder carelessly. He dropped his head between her thighs without hesitation, curling his hands around her thighs to keep her immobile as he tongued her clit through her underwear. Anna arched into his mouth, gasping and clutching at his hair; tugging him closer as her skin vibrated from the tension building her her core.

She whined as his mouth disappeared, her hand falling out of his hair and against her hip lifelessly. She watched through half lidded eyes as Kol shucked off his shoes and pants, reaching for his hand when he crawled back over her. He nuzzled his nose against hers, linking their fingers as he pushed himself inside her. Anna's thighs fell open to accommodate him, her hips lifting off the ground to meet his slow thrusts, turning her head to press a bruising kiss to his lips. Kol's fingers tightened around hers, slamming into her with a snarl, his tongue filling her mouth as his pace quickened. His free hand slid over one of her thighs, fingertips hesitating against the jagged skin before drawing her leg up and around his hips, driving deeper into he

He muffled her cries with his tongue, and she raked her nails down his back to urge him on. Tension coiled in Anna's stomach, her hand pressed against his spine as the walls surrounding Kol's cock tightened deliciously. She could practically taste her orgasm as Kol buried his face against her neck, hitching her hips higher and adjusting his angel inside of her. Anna held her breath in anticipation, arching up to dig her teeth into Kol's shoulder, breaking the skin. The taste of his blood sent her over the edge, the tension around her breaking suddenly as she spasmed around him. Kol came with a muffled shout moments later, slowing his movements and letting her ride out her orgasm until he finally stilled over her.

He pressed a kiss to the corner of her eye, his lips lingering for a few moments before he sighed against her cheek. "I love you too," he murmured, rolling off of her with an exhausted grunt, pulling her into his side as he did. Anna propped her cheek onto his chest, running her hand lightly down his abdomen and resting on his navel. Kol pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"I hope this was worth whatever misery you had to go through this week," Anna teased, glancing up at him. Kol rolled his eyes.

"I owe Nik and Rebekah apologies," he admitted gruffly. "Wankers should have known better than to test me." He paused, running his fingers against her shoulder lightly. "You do know that you're worth any pain I go through, don't you?"

"No I'm not," said Anna, her voice small. "I'm not worth any of this."

Kol snorted into her hair. "Think what you'd like," he tsk'd, tightening his arm around her. "But you're the only person I'd ever go through this for."

.

Elijah was trying (he really was) not to snap Caroline's neck; he reasoned that she was worried about her friend - but if the baby blonde vampire didn't shut up soon, he was going to give her to Niklaus to deal with.

Her eyebrows furrowed suddenly as her rant abruptly cut off. Her silence was short lived, however. "Why are you smirking like that?"

Elijah sighed. He had waited outside the Bennett house while Caroline had gone in after Anna - he didn't have an invitation, otherwise he would have gone in himself and wrangled his brother and sister-in-law out of there instead of having to go to the Forbes girl. "Keep talking and you'll find out," he warned, glancing at her.

She visibly stiffened and wisely kept her mouth shut; as Elijah pulled his car into the drive of his home, he spotted Rebekah lurking outside near the shrubs. Caroline made an involuntary noise of distaste from the seat beside him.

"Play nice and we'll let you stay," Elijah drawled. He shot her a cheeky grin as he climbed out of the car. "Grab the witch while you're at it, won't you, dear?"

Elijah shut the door just in time to cut off Caroline's responding swear, nodding to his sister as she stepped forward a bit and out of 'hiding'. "Where's Kol?" she asked, glancing back at the car worriedly. Elijah merely shrugged.

"With Annabelle, I imagine," he said casually, ignoring the aghast look on Rebekah's face. He passed her airily, leaning into her shoulder to hiss, "Though I'm not sure what kind of state he's in." He was genuinely worried about his brother, and as he glanced back to see Caroline dragging Bonnie out ot the backseat with ear, he wondered if Anna was handling him alright on her own. "I brought the witch along to shed some light on his mess for us. Hopefully we can finally undo this once and for all."

Rebekah nodded, but held her tongue, though Elijah did catch the way her eyes narrowed at the witch. He lifted his hand and gestured for Caroline to follow him, speaking to Rebekah. "Get Finn and Klaus, sister."

"And Anna and Kol?" asked Rebekah, glancing at him almost nastily. "What about them? Do you not care?"

"Don't question whether or not I care for my family," Elijah warned her, continuing into the house without another look back at her.

But Rebekah did as she was told, and soon enough the study was once again filled, five vampires and one unconscious witch, who Finn immediately propped up in a chair and bound. Elijah was reminded of the way they had restrained Cataleya, the memory brought a smile smirk to his face.

"Wake her."

Rebekah stepped forward immediately, and Finn had to pull away quickly in order to avoid getting run over as she brought her hand back and smacked Bonnie across the face smartly. The witch startled awake in tandem with Caroline's loud protest of "Hey!" which was of course ignored by everyone else in the room. Rebekah stepped back, folding her arms over her stomach as she did, and Finn resumed his place in front of Bonnie, placing his hands over her wrists.

"Wha-?"

"Cataleya," Finn smoothly cut her off, earning her attention. Her eyes widened slightly, leaning away from him slightly.

"Who the hell is Cataleya?" interrupted Caroline, gesturing at her friend. "That's _Bonnie_."

"No, Caroline, they think I'm her," said the witch, her eyes filling with tears. She sounded desperate and child-like, swallowing hard when she looked back at Finn. "She's not here anymore, I _swear_."

"You're lying," said Finn, his voice low as his upper lip pulled into a snarl. He reached up to touch the open wound in her neck, showing her the blood on his fingers. "Anna should have killed you, and yet you live."

"I am _not_ Cataleya," said Bonnie desperately. Finn stood, staring down at her with narrowed eyes. "I don't even know what happened!"

"The sooner you drop the facade, the sooner this will be over."

"My _god_, will you just let her go!?" shouted Caroline, pushing past Elijah, looking wildly at the Original's standing around doing nothing. Klaus reached for her, jerking her back into his chest with a soft growl.

"Caroline, this isn't any of your concern," he muttered into her hair, his grip tightening when she struggled against him.

"Bonnie _is_ my concern."

"That," started Klaus, nodding to the witch in her chair. "Is not Bonnie."

Caroline turned her head, raising a sceptical eyebrow. "Yes it is."

"No, love, I _know_ Cataleya," said Klaud, his eyes darkening, never leaving the witches face. "And while Bonnie is indeed a very sweet, innocent girl,_ that woman_ is not. We're lucky Anna managed to subdue her before she did any real damage."

Eyes flashed red briefly, and Klaus flinched as if he'd been struck. Immediately Finn had his hand around the witches throat, pinning her back while Klaus pulled away from a stunned looking Caroline. "As I said, love."

"That bitch should be dead," Cataleya bit out, her chest heaving from the exertion of performing a spell in her weakened state.

"Anna and Kol had survived you for hundreds of years," sneered Rebekah, and Caroline noticed that every one of her brother's rolled their eyes. "What makes you think you're so significant?"

Cataleya didn't say a word, but turned her eyes to the ceiling and swallowed thickly beneath Finn's hand. The eldest Mikaelson brushed his thumb across her jaw contemplatively. "And what shall we do with her now?"

Elijah lifted a shoulder. "I say, kill her."


	13. Chapter 13

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** M  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd. Two chapters left!

* * *

Elijah's words hung heavily in the air for a moment, but just as quickly as he suggested it, Rebekah shrugged. "Fine by me," she said, stepping forward. Her eyes narrowed on Caroline as the baby vampire cut her off, all vamped out and hissing intimidatingly. Rebekah snorted at her display, taking another step forward with the intent of just sweeping Caroline to the side.

"It won't work."

Rebekah swung her head around to look at Finn. He was pouring himself a glass of brandy, not even looking at his sister and Caroline. When no one made a sound, he looked up, lifting an eyebrow and setting the decanter back onto the table. Elijah flicked his eyes toward him, sighing in displeasure because of _course_ there was a catch.

"And why is that?" he asked tightly, his lips pulling down as he stepped forward to reign his sister back in. She snarled at him under her breath while Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Finn smugly.

The eldest Mikaelson sighed, lifting his drink to his lips for a moment as he rolled his thoughts around his head. "Cataleya," he began carefully, licking the bit of drink that had spilled over his lower lip. "Has bound herself to Kol."

Everyone in the room but Caroline turned their heads to glare at the witch still strapped to the chair in the middle of the room. Caroline twisted around to look at her too, frowning in confusion. "What the hell does that mean?"

Unsurprisingly, Cataleya didn't answer her; she didn't even acknowledge the baby vampire, giving her attention to Finn instead as he answered Caroline's question for her.

"Killing her would kill Kol, and visa versa."

"So just kill Kol."

Every pair of eyes in the room snapped onto Caroline, whose challenging demeanor slowly faded as she realized that she probably should have spoken. There was a moment that she thought they'd actually let the comment go.

She was wrong.

"Oh come _on!_" shouted Caroline as Klaus practically tossed her outside, shutting the door in her face with a quick shrug of his shoulders. Caroline rolled her eyes and pounded on the door with her fist; Bonnie was in there, and she needed to be protected. Finn had said that killing her would have been useless, but that didn't mean they wouldn't actually try.

Caroline huffed, stepping back from the door and staring up at the front of the house with narrowed, calculating eyes. "Son of a bitch."

.

Anna was dressing unsuccessfully as Kol distracted her with his lips on her neck and her hips in his hands, whispering against her ear that there wasn't any reason for them to leave so soon. Anna batted at his bare chest, pulling away long enough to get her pants over her legs before Kol spun her around and pulled her back against him.

"We should enjoy this while it lasts," he muttered against her hair, his fingers dancing up her sides. Anna turned her head and leaned her cheek against his shoulder, doing exactly as he said and enjoying being able to touch him again without feeling like she was dying.

She couldn't stand the thought that this wouldn't last.

Pulling away without a word, Anna crossed the room to look for the rest of her clothing, listening to Kol exhale slowly behind her before the sound of fabric shuffling caught her attention. She glanced over her shoulder to see Kol already buckling his belt, toeing her bra with a distracted look on his face. Anna found her shirt between a box of christmas decorations and an old computer, shaking the dust off of it as she made her way back to Kol's side. He glanced at her, his serious expression softening slightly, bending down to pick her bra off the floor and handing it to her without a word.

"Thanks," Anna murmured, taking it out of his hand and feeling like she made a mistake by doing so. He watched her seriously for a minute while she redressed, reaching out suddenly to wrap his hand around her waist and pull her into his body, breathing against her lips for a moment.

"We need to go," murmured Anna, settling her hand into his chest and turning herself into him. Kol sighed, pressing his lips to hers gently.

"I don't wanna," he muttered back seriously, trailing his lips across her jaw. Anna nuzzled her nose against his ear, hooking her arm around his neck.

"I know," she whispered, curling her body into his. "Trust me, Kol, I know." she reaffirmed tightly when she heard him snort against her hair. "You think I want to go back? Do you think I want you to forget me again?"

"I _told_ you," hissed Kol, pulling far enough away to glare down at her. "I'm not forgetting you again, Anna."

She didn't say anything; he didn't have a choice, and she knew it. Staring at the hand she had on his chest, Anna wondered how fast he would change his tune once her skin started splitting apart again. As if reading her thoughts, Kol reached up to touch the raw skin on her chest carefully. Anna lifted her hand and pushed him off her gently, her breathing shallow as she stepped away from him to finish dressing.

"Did I miss something?" asked Kol, sounding bitter, looking away from her to pull his shirt over his head. Anna looked up at him sharply, her eyes widen in confusion. Kol huffed, adjusting the collar of his shirt for a moment and shooting her a narrowed look out of the corner of his eye. "I know I've only been functioning at half speed for a few centuries, but I thought you'd be a little more receptive to the idea of us being together then you have been."

Shaking her head, Anna shoved her shirt over her head and reached down to grab one of her shoes. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with him, she'd love to, but it just didn't work that way. "You've missed a lot," she said instead, turning in a circle to try and find her other shoe, spotting it next to the pile of wood she'd pulled out of Kol earlier. She grimaced slightly and grabbed it, sparing Kol a glance; he was staring at her blankly, waiting for her to continue. "I stopped believing that this can be fixed a long time ago."

Anna was halfway to the stairs when Kol appeared in front of her with that same empty expression, quirking an eyebrow dryly down at her while Anna stopped abruptly, pursing her lips to keep from swearing at him. "How many witches did you go to, to try and break it?" he asked softly, making her blink in surprise. She thought he'd at least be angry.

"More than you did," said Anna, lowering her eyes to the ground. That wasn't fair, he tried so hard to keep her safe - but she had the time to go anywhere in the world to try and get him back, so she did. For a long time that was all she did. "It doesn't matter though, it can't be broken."

"Because she bound herself to me?" sneered Kol. Anna just nodded, sidestepping him and continuing toward the stairs. Kol lolled his head to the side, grabbing her wrist before she could get past him and pulled her to a stop. "Is she really that powerful?"

"She _was_," clarified Anna, twisting her wrist and grabbing him back, tugging him after her. "The only way to break the curse is to find a witch who _is_ more powerful than she _was_. Bonnie doesn't have nearly enough power, and I've never come across a witch who was even willing to help me."

"Expression is tricky business," said Kol lightly, following Anna without complaint. "You'd be lucky to find anyone at all, let alone someone good enough at it to be able to undo the shit Cataleya's done to us."

Anna stopped on the stairs and turned around, staring down at Kol with an eyebrow raised pointedly. "Exactly."

"Anna, that isn't a reason to - just because you couldn't find anyone doesn't mean I can't."

"Maybe in another century, murmured Anna, pulling her hand out of his and continuing to the ground floor without another word.

Anna wondered if he was going to keep arguing with her; she wasn't halfway through the front door before her question was answered as Kol stepped into her side and tossed an arm over her shoulders, grinning up at the sky like their discussion in the basement hadn't happened. "So," he started, twirling his finger into her hair as she steered them down the street in the direction of Klaus' mansion. "Where are we going?"

Despite herself, Anna leaned into him. She was trying not to get too attached, but then again she'd already shot that horse in the face by sleeping with him. Didn't matter though, things would go back to normal soon enough. She glanced up at him, suppressing an eyeroll. "I have a feeling your brothers are pretty worried about you."

.

Caroline was sitting on the stoop outside the door with her knees pulled up to her chest and her cheek resting in her palm, staring boredly at her shoes while she tried to figure out how to get back into the house without getting her neck snapped. Barging back in there would be a bad idea, for both her and for Bonnie; for all she knew they could get annoyed with her and kill the witch just to teach her a lesson.

What the hell was so special about Kol anyway? Ugh.

"Caroline?" the blonde's head snapped up at her name, eyebrows shooting up to see Anna and (_speak of the devil_) Kol walking toward her. She may had been imagining it, but she could have sworn Kol had his arm around the shorter vampire; maybe not though, because Anna was walking toward her sans Kol with a weird look on her face. "What are you doing?"

Caroline's eyes flicked to Kol, who was looking at his nails. Well he certainly looked fine; she turned back to Anna with a huff. "I was kicked out."

Anna made a face, continuing past Caroline and up the stairs. The blonde twisted around to watch her just walk straight into the mansion like she owned the place. Grumbling and turning back around, she jumped when she noticed Kol was suddenly in front of her, staring at her oddly. "Why are you on the ground?"

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, her upper lip pulling in distaste. "I don't know, what the hell's up with your hair?"

Kol didn't answer her, but Caroline caught him run his fingers through it just before he disappeared into the house, leaving Caroline sitting alone. Again.

Kol caught up with Anna easily, placing his hand on the small of her back as they walked into the study, earning surprised looks from everyone inside. Cataleya included. Rebekah was the first to break out of her shock, moving close enough to her brother to throw her arms around him. Kol grunted as Rebekah practically crushed his ribs, her arms tightening around him briefly before she pulled away and punched him in the gut.

"Ah, _Bekah!_" growled Kol, shoving her back and into Elijah. His older brother rolled his eyes as he helped their sister regain her footing, shooting Anna a look over the blonde's shoulder before he turned back to Cataleya. Kol followed his gaze, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"What are you gonna do, keep her as a pet?" sneered Anna, pulling away from Kol's side to weave through his siblings until she was standing in front of the witch, folding her arms over her chest as she glared down at the woman who had, for all intents and purposes, killed her. Kol thought she was doing a lovely job of restraining herself.

"You know then?" asked Finn with a deep sigh, moving to her side. She nodded and he promptly offered her the drink in his hand; she took it with a strained smile, cradling it to her breasts and stepping away from Finn to move to the other side of the room, never taking her eyes off the witch.

"Yes, we've established that the woman can't be killed," said Klaus boredly from his lean against one of the bookshelves. "Which would have been useful information to have known _beforehand_," this he directed pointedly at Anna, who quirked an eyebrow and sipped her drink, daring him to keep going.

"I was just about to suggest someone who would be powerful enough," said Finn to Anna. Obviously he figured she had done her research on the curse and knew no run of the mill caster would be able to fix their problems, but no one else did, and they looked at him strangely for an explanation.

"What witch?" asked Kol, crossing his arms tightly and frowning. Finn had only been out of his coffin for a few weeks, there was no way he had any contacts. If anyone could get them an Expressionist, it would be Klaus-

"Mother."

The room went dead still, and for a moment no one dared to move. Anna's eyes flicked from one Mikaelson to the other, finally landing on Kol. "_Esther?_" she asked softly, her voice echoing in the silence. There was a beat of silence, and then Elijah stepped toward Finn, his eyes hard.

"Out."

Finn drew himself up to his full height, countering his brother, but before either of them could exchange another word Rebekah had shoved herself between them. "Elijah, stop, he has a point," she hissed softly, not meeting Elijah's eyes.

"Are you insane? She tried to _kill_ us."

"She has enough power," interjected Finn, placing his hand on Rebekah's shoulder supportively. "I swear she won't harm us."

"Your word means _absolutely_ nothing to me, Finn," snapped Elijah, turning to Klaus, raising both eyebrows. Klaus merely shook his head, refusing to participate in the discussion. Biting back a snarl, Elijah flicked his stare onto Kol.

"Absolutely not," was Kol's immediate response. "I refuse to deal with that woman."

With a satisfied nod, Elijah turned back to Finn and Rebekah, opening his mouth to tell them off.

"You lied to me." Kol's eyes snapped onto Anna, her soft voice cutting off Elijah. She was staring at him with an off looking expression in her eyes, but his stomach sank when he realized what she had said. She nodded, looking away. "Back to normal after all, I guess."

Kol stared at Anna, his mind whirling as he tried to come up with any alternate solution to their situation without having to resort to having his memory wiped. He hadn't been lying when he said he wasn't going back to that, he never wanted that again. He could remember every single moment they'd had together while he couldn't remember her, and if that was too painful for him to go through _now_, his stomach churned at the thought of what she had to go through each time. Fuck though, she was right; without a witch powerful enough they wouldn't be able to break the curse, it was only a matter of time (days, weeks...realistically it was hours) until his remembering her started killing her again. And fuck Finn because he was right too. They didn't know anyone powerful enough who could perform an unbiding in a short amount of time _except_ for Esther.

He risked losing Anna and going through this madness again or dying himself and bringing his family down with him.

"Call her," said Kol suddenly, interrupting Rebekah. Finn looked over at him, and Kol sighed, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. "If she makes this worse than..." Anna looked up at him, her eyes wide; Kol's hand fell back to his side and he nodded back at her. "Just call her."


	14. Chapter 14

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** M  
**Author's Note: **Unbeta'd. All that's left now is the epilogue. I hope you all hate me and cry. :)

* * *

Since Finn had contacted Esther, the rest of the Originals had fallen into an uneasy silence. Anna had taken a seat in one of the chairs in the far corner of the room, as far from the rest of them as possible, and sat nursing her drink; Klaus had gone out to either sho Caroline away or invite her inside in his half-hearted attempt to woo her, no one really knew, but he'd been gone for a while. Elijah muttered something about him being afraid of their mother, and Rebekah had scoffed, because weren't they all? She hadn't managed to stay still long after that, and began pacing slowly around the room, looking like a big cat with her striking blue eyes darting predatorily to a silent Cataleya every so often. The witch sat stock still in her chair, her eyes focused angrily on the ground. Kol was lounging gracefully in one of the couches, staring at Cataleya while she continued to brood, his arm tossed over the back of the couch casually and his ankle propped up on his knee.

None of them had any idea how long it was going to take their mother to show up, and the tension between them all was becoming very edgy while they waited for her. Kol's gaze was unfocused as his thoughts floated through his mind, never lingering on a single one to keep from...well, thinking too hard. He propped his elbow on the armrest and leaned his chin between his fingers, the movement drawing Rebekah's gaze onto him; for a moment the two shared a look, and Rebekah's steely expression wavered long enough for Kol to realize that his sister was far too invested in his love life to be considered normal.

The corner of his lips twitched slightly, and he shook his head slightly as he turned his eyes away from her as she continued pacing. All heads (sans Cataleya) turned sharply the door opened; Klaus stopped just inside the doorway, looking at each of them strangely before shutting the study door behind him. Elijah raised his chin in greeting.

"Has Caroline gone?" Klaus shook his head.

"She won't be convinced that we wouldn't harm Bonnie," he said exasperatedly, gesturing over his shoulder. "She's still sitting on the stoop."

"You didn't invite her in?"

"Should I have?" asked Klaus, his eyebrows raising in surprise. "I assumed this was a family affair." he trailed off suggestively, his eyes flicking to Anna in the corner. The brunette vampire looked away from him, pressing the rim of her drink to her lips and letting the glass rest there for a little while before draining the rest of the caught her shudder out of the corner of his eye; he doubted it was the alcohol.

"What is it?" he asked sharply, his gaze moving over her face when she looked up at him. His siblings all turned to look at him as well, and even Cataleya raised her head to stare. Anna opened her mouth, but nothing came out; out of concern for his wife, Kol stood and crossed the room, sinking to his knees in front of her and curling one hand around her ankle to keep her still.

Anna didn't answer him, she only leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his, wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and holding him against her. Kol could feel her shaking, which meant that whatever lapse that had occurred in Cataleya's magic was wearing off. "I told you it wouldn't last," whispered Anna, her voice strained despite how casual she was trying to sound.

Kol flicked his eyes away with a frown, his jaw clenched angrily; Anna ran her fingertips lightly across the skin of his neck, drawing his attention back to her and softening his expression. He sighed, pressing a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth. "This is the right thing to do," he murmured, pulling away before Anna had time to react, and turning back to his siblings, all of whom were staring conspicuously at the ceiling.

Kol had just opened his mouth to snap something at them, when the study door opened and Finn stepped in, swinging his arms behind his back and stopping briskly. His eyes flashed in Anna's direction briefly, before he lowered his chin slightly and said quite clearly. "Mother has arrived."

The atmosphere in the room became frosty, Elijah and Rebekah both looking away from Finn and adjusting their posture to speak for their discomfort. Klaus' fingers twitched, but other than that he did nothing. Anna stood to stand beside Kol, hovering close enough to him that if they were human he would be able to feel the heat coming off her.

"I'll love you whether you can remember me or not," breathed Anna into Kol's shoulder, her eyes trained on the open door behind Finn. Kol looked down at her sharply, his lips peeling apart as the breath left his lungs; _this was the right thing to do_, he chanted silently, _this is the right thing to do._

Kol must have lost a bit of time during his slight struggle to start breathing again (which was dumb, because he didn't need too; but out of habit, not breathing was a little startling), because the next time he looked up, Esther was gliding into the room. She only had eyes for him and Anna, which made Kol uneasy; he shifted his weight slightly and made a move to put his hand against his wife's back, but stopped just in time to catch himself from touching her. He grimaced and lowered his hand, glancing at Anna whose shoulders slumped in response to his slip up.

"Kol," he managed not to flinch in irritation as his mother addressed him, sweeping around Finn and walking toward him. She looked the same as she did the last time he saw her; the only difference now was that she wasn't trying to kill him. She reached out to brush her hand across his cheek, like she used to do when he was little after he'd gotten himself into trouble. Kol drew back slightly, his eyes darting to her hand suspiciously and causing her to still; Anna straightened in response to his reaction, drawing Esther's gaze to her.

Which, in Kol's mind, was even worse.

He watched Esther shake her head, turning away with a small sigh as she let her arm fall back to her side. "What have you done now, Kol."

Anna prickled beside him, which under normal circumstances would have amused him, but this was _Esther_ - dubbed the Original Witch by a bunch of _were_-people who didn't know any better (of course she wasn't the _original_ witch, that would have been absurd); Kol barely had time to grab her arm and pull her back before she said something stupid like _it wasn't his fault._

The moment his fingers touched her arm electricity shot up his arm; it fried his nerves and vibrated through his bones (it was worse than any black magic; it made him nauseous and cold and hopeless, and if this is what Anna felt every time he touched her then-). Anna pulled her arm away from him just in time for Esther to turn back around, her eyes falling to Kol's hand.

"Finn, when you said Kol had gotten himself into a curse-"

"Forgive my vagueness, Mother," interrupted Finn, nodding to Cataleya even though Esther wasn't looking at him. "But this wasn't a recent occurrence."

Esther kept her eyes on Kol as she sidestepped away from him, moving her eyes onto the witch when she was finished scrutinizing him. Her eyebrows drew together, the corners of her mouth quirking down in confusion. "She's not a Bennett witch."

"Oh have we found the only one?" simpered Rebekah, rolled her eyes and turning away slightly. Esther ignored her, circling Cataleya slowly.

"Is she responsible for the spell?"

"Finn has faith in you to break it," answered Elijah stiffly, his eyes flicking away from his mother just as she looked up at him. He stared at a spot near Kol's shoulder, chewing on the inside of his cheek has he kept whatever comments he had, in check. "Give us all a bit of peace."

"So you can kill her?" asked Esther pointedly. "I won't be responsible for-"

"When you unbind her from Kol she'll cross over," interrupted Anna, folding her arms across her chest and staring at Esther with a heavy gaze. The witch raised an eyebrow in interest, while Finn nodded along in agreement. Anna raised an eyebrow back at her. "I'm surprised you didn't know that, what with all the watching you've done."

Kol caught Klaus' smirk just before he covered it up with a cough, gesturing absently at Cataleya as he stepped back. "Well, I'm sure you can handle something as...uncomplicated, as this," he said, snagging Rebekah's elbow on his way out; Elijah followed close behind, shaking his head. "No need for us; I'm sure our presence here will only make things...messy." he ended with a pointed look at Kol, who nodded in understanding - if Esther tried anything funny, she was to be eliminated. Easy peasy.

"It won't take long," said Esther, holding her arm out behind her, still staring at Cataleya. Anna sneered at her hand, flicking her eyes up at Kol.

"Is she serious?" Kol felt a bit of pride swell up at the amount of disgust Anna put in her voice. He'd told her about his mother once-upon-a-time, and she must have been in town for the aftermath of the ball Esther had hosted; obviously his lovely wife had developed her own warm and fuzzy feelings for her mother-in-law.

"You'll have to take off your clothes-"

"Out." deadpanned Kol, shooting a dry look at Finn and a lingering Klaus. His older brothers smirked, glancing at each other before backing out without a word. Esther turned away from Cataleya long enough to spare him a admonishing look.

"Are you quite done?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "I'd like to undo the pain you've caused this poor girl."

This time Kol was the one who bristled, and before he could stop her, Anna stepped forward. "You don't know anything about my pain."

"Anna..." Kol trailed off in warning. Anna glared at Esther, but she didn't say another word to her, instead she turned her head to look at Kol.

"If she's just going to make you out to be the bad guy then I don't want her help."

"I do," said Kol without hesitation. Anna's eyes narrowed, opening her mouth to say something, but Kol leaned down slightly, interrupting her with a pleading look. "This _is_ the right thing to do, Annabelle."

She fell silent, weighing his words for a moment before nodding, albeit reluctantly. "Fine, but don't expect me to thank her or anything," she grumbled at him, smirking softly when he smiled at her.

"Not that I don't enjoy this," interrupted Esther, drawing both of their gazes to her. The witch had gotten her hands on some herbs and a metal bowl, which was smoking gently on the coffee table (if Kol listened hard enough he could hear Elijah cursing darkly under his breath in the hall). She was staring at them with an odd expression on her face; if Kol didn't know better he'd say she looked affectionate. "And truly I do; but I'd prefer to get the ritual done with before the sun sets."

"Is something suppose to happen when the sun sets?" muttered Anna, stuffing her hands into her pockets as she swayed closer to Esther, eyeing the witch carefully. Kol crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes never leaving Esther as he snorted at the question.

"Hopefully she'll go away."

.

The unbinding process was, in Esther's words, simple. Kol would have chosen a different adjective, but it was done and Cataleya was done; no flashes of light or gusts of wind where wind didn't belong, just a little bit of blood and a little bit of metal. Esther had knocked out all three of them at one point, and when Kol woke, his mother was bending over him, brushing ash off his cheek.

He smacked her hand away and sat up, feeling no different than before. Kol cleared his throat uncomfortably, glancing around him with a frown until he found was he was looking for. The expression on his face melted off, and he scrambled gracefully to his feet, flashing to the couch where Anna was laid out and sitting beside her. "What have you done to her?" he demanded to know, touching the back of his hand to her cheek. Nothing. No flashes of pain, no repressed memories floating to the surface; it was just Anna beneath his hand.

He managed to swallow back the emotion swelling in his gut before his mother noticed and pounced on his weakness. She was staring at him though, while he stared at his still sleeping wife and stroked her face. "If you have something to say-"

"You didn't think it would work," Esther interrupted. Kol turned his head to stare at her, the expressionless mask he wore giving nothing away. It hadn't been a question.

"I had my doubts," Kol started carefully, the hand he'd left on Anna's face falling across her cheek and into her hair. His gaze wavered away from Esther for a moment, an eyebrow raising at the young witch still tied to her chair. "That you would come in the first place," he ended, noticing the way Esther straightened out of the corner of his eye.

"Do you remember the first time I caught you using magic?" asked Esther suddenly, drawing Kol's complete attention. She bent down in front of Bonnie's form, slim fingers undoing the knot work around her wrists. "You had set your entire bed on fire; I was furious, I thought you have gotten into Elijah's flint." Esther glanced at him briefly, dropping the rope to the ground and standing up, brushing off her slacks and moving to the metal bowl she'd been working with, tidying up. "But you _swore_ that you hadn't touched your brother's things. Of course I didn't believe you," Kol rolled his eyes. "And why should I have? You hadn't spoken a true word since you _began_ talking; but-" Esther paused, casting her hand over the blow; Kol watched the metal fold into itself, until it was nothing but a small square that fit snuggly into the palm of her hand. "Then you showed me what you'd done."

"I bent the light coming in through the window," finished Kol, turning his head down to look at Anna, still blissfully unconscious. "Why the sudden trip down memory lane?"

"I didn't believe Finn when he called for me," said Esther. "He told me you loved this girl," Kol closed his eyes, making a mental note to kill Finn the first chance he got.

"You can keep on thinking whatever you'd like," muttered Ko;, watching Anna's brow twitch. "We don't need you anymore."

On queue, the door opened and Elijah walked in, Rebekah trailing behind him. She happily broke away from their elder brother to lean over Kol's shoulder, watching Anna wake slowly with him. "Did it work?"

"Piss off, Bekah."

"_Well-_"

Rebekah was interrupted by movement from the chair as Bonnie stirred, one hand going to her temple as she looked up, squinting at them all. "What the-?"

"Best not to ask questions just yet, Miss Bennett," said Elijah soothingly, taking Bonnie by the elbow and helping her out of her chair. Dazed as she was, Bonnie only nodded, shooing off Elijah's help and heading for the door, sparing one last confused look back at Esther.

"Now, hold on," started Rebekah, holding up a hand and looking over at Elijah. "If Cataleya isn't there, where the hell is she?"

"Her spirit has passed on," answered Esther. Rebekah refused to met her eyes, instead pushing her tongue against the inside of her teeth in annoyance "Hopefully."

"Lovely," she snapped tartly. Rebekah leaned forward slightly, looking out the door with a frown. "Where did Nik go?" she asked, glancing at Elijah again. "Wasn't he behind us?"

Elijah merely lifted a shoulder, absolutely unconcerned for Klaus' whereabouts. While she was being ignored, Esther had collected the remainder of her things and swept toward the door. "I think I'll speak with Finn again before I leave..."

Whatever else was said was lost as Anna opened her eyes and claimed Kol's attention. She stared up at him for a moment, one hand flying up to touch the hand he still had in her hair, her lips parting in relief. Anna sucked air into her lungs and pushed herself up, brushing her nose against his and grinning like an idiot just before she kissed him.

"It worked," she said against his lips, her eyes bright with tears. Anna reached up to press her hand against her chest, running her palm across the place her scars used to be. "They're gone," she breathed, eyes widening a fraction at the realization. "Kol-"

He wasn't smiling back; he had never been so happy in his life, and he couldn't smile back at her. He reached for her instead, burying his face into the crook her her neck and breathing in the scent of her hair and her skin. She didn't smell like blood; for the first time in hundreds of years he had her against him and she didn't smell like blood. Anna was laughing breathlessly, her hands clutching at his shirt and his hair while her face turned against his. Kol felt her eyes close, for a few moments they just sat there in silence in each other's arms. Happy.

"This is the right thing to do," muttered Kol into her shoulder, cradling the back of her head with his hand and pulling away. Anna's smile had softened considerably, and as she reached up to wipe away the moisture beneath her lashes, he looked down and closed his eyes.

"You were right," said Anna, sounding so unbelievably happy that it made his heart ache. "Esther fixed it, she fixed everything."

Behind him, Kol heard Rebekah turn to Elijah. He could hear the smirk in her voice and the sound of her feet dragging against the carpet as she backed out of the study, saying, "I _told you_ they were soul mates."

Elijah, to his credit, only scoffed and followed her out. "It was a curse, Rebekah." he retorted, his voice reverberating from down the hall. "Get your head out of your ass."

Sighing, Kol tuned them out; he had everything he wanted, he had Anna and his memories and his family wasn't completely mental for once. Everything was...practically perfect. Cold fingertips against his cheek drew Kol's gaze back onto Anna, blinking down at her while she stared back; she had that same wistful expression on her face, he wanted to kiss it away and make up for all the years Catayela had taken from them.

Kol reached up, taking the hand she'd placed on his cheek and turned his head to kiss her palm. "I love you," he said, moving her hand down to her lap and letting go. Anna frowned at him, the happiness in her eyes dying slowly. "That's what you used to tell me, isn't it? Every time I had to forget again, you would tell me that." He looked away, his jaw working as he composed himself. It would be easier to turn off his emotions, but he couldn't do that to Annabelle, not after everything. "I never got the chance to say it back to you." Her head was tilted to the side as she stared at him in confusion; Kol looked at her sideways, the corner of his mouth pulling upward. "But I do, I do love you."

"What are you doing?" asked Anna, finally. "Kol-"

"Look at me," interrupted Kol, straightening suddenly, sliding his hand from the back of her head to the side of her face, keeping her head steady. "And listen."

Anna shook her head, her lower lip shaking as the reformed tears in her eyes teetered on her eyelashes and threatened to fall. "No. Kol, don't-"

"You are going to be so much happier without me," he mumbled, leaning toward her slightly. His face scrunched for a moment, jaw clenched, before he forced his expression to smooth out. "Listen to me, Annabelle," he started, feeling her relax beneath his hands and watching her pupils contract in tandem with his. "You are going to forget all about me; because _despite_ how much I love you, and how much I know you love me...this is the right thing to do. I can't be selfish with you, not anymore. I should have done this from the beginning and for that I'm so sorry. I put you through so much and-" Kol took a breath, stopping abruptly and looking away; his hand fell from her face and Anna swayed after it, still under his compulsion. He looked back up and froze; all he had to do was finish and she could go on without him, like she deserved to. "And you're going to leave Mystic Falls."

And without hesitation he snapped her neck, watching Anna drop back against the couch lifelessly.

For a few minutes Kol just sat there staring at her, the seconds ticking closer to the moment she would wake back up. He had a little while to pretend like he hadn't done that, but as five minutes turned into ten it started to sink in. Anna would forget him, of everything she'd experienced from the curse, and he would disappear.

Standing quickly, Kol ran his hand over his mouth, tearing his eyes away and stalking away without a look back at her. Rebekah was just coming down the hall as he was leaving, and he watched her go stock still when she spotted him, like a deer moments before it was hit with a car.

"Rebekah, perfect, just who I needed to see." His voice sounded off, even in his ears. It was too cheery to be him. Rebekah immediately took a step back, but he was too quick. Kol gripped her shoulder, grinning toothily at her as he steered her in the direction of the study; pushing her hard enough to make her stumble so he wouldn't have to go back in there and undo everything he just compelled Anna to forget. "Get rid of her."

Rebekah blinked at him. "What?"

Kol nodded over her shoulder. "Anna. Get rid of her."

Rebekah was starting to look nervous. "Why?"

"Because I don't_ want her_ here," he stressed, putting as much truth into his words as he could. Rebekah was an excellent judge when it came to liars, she had to be after the love life she went through. But even though his disgust was mostly with himself, Rebekah wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Kol watched the nervousness fall away, replaced with a kind of sadness he didn't expect from her. She blinked rapidly for a moment, shaking her head.

"What did you do?"

"What I had to," answered Kol simply, holding out his arms and backing away. Rebekah stared after him as he went, and he could swear he smelled tears in the air. "Be a good girl and see her out." Rebekah didn't move. "_Now_, Rebekah."

Rebekah turned her head, looking over her shoulder at the study; opening her mouth to tell Kol to do it himself, when she turned back to find him he was gone.


	15. Chapter 15

**Title: Promise of Forever**  
**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
**Author:** darkmagic-luvr/thecunningclock  
**Pairings: **Kol/Anna  
**Rating:** M  
**Author's Note: **This is it! The _very_ end! Hope you all don't hate me too much and thank you all for reading this far! I've been bribed into write a prequel so hopefully that'll get started soon. I'm terrible at ending things, I hate to see them go, so hopefully you guys find some closure to everything that's happened.

* * *

_90 years down the road..._

The bar's atmosphere filled his senses as he pulled off his scarf and wrapped the thin fabric around one hand, scanning the tables casually for any sign of Elijah and Rebekah. He spotted them sitting a bit out of the way, making note of them as he turned to get a drink from the bar, compelling away the bartender when he was carded. With a heavy sigh, Kol dropped into the seat next to Rebekah, setting his drink on the table and flashing her a grin. His sister turned her head to look at him, blinking at his sudden appearance but otherwise not saying a word to him. Elijah grinned happily at him, pleased to see him there.

"Kol, glad you could join us."

"Why would I miss it?" asked Kol casually, shaking out of his coat and tossing it across the only empty chair at the table. "Seeing my dear family gives me every bit of joy-"

"Shut up, Kol," interrupted Rebekah, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms across her stomach while he gestured rudely at her. She eyed him closely for a moment and then turned her gaze onto Elijah. "And who are we drinking to this time?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow. Kol leaned forward with interest, dropping his elbows onto the table and placing his chin on his clasped hands. "Finn? Mikael, maybe?"

"Anna."

Kol's face went blank instantly; Rebekah sat up straighter, smirking a little to herself and fiddled with a piece of hair hanging over her shoulder. "I think that's a lovely idea."

"I think it's shit."

Rebekah ignored him completely, but Elijah frowned at him with disapproval. "Kol, she's your wife-"

"Was," snapped Kol, glaring at his brother. "It's been almost a century, when are you going to give this up?"

"When you come to your senses and realize that compelling her to forget you and everything she's gone through - everything that made her who she was, mind you - was complete idiocy," Kol sat hack in his chair heavily, looking away crossly. He could feel Elijah's eyes on the side of his face; all joking aside, he had explained his reasons very carefully to each of his siblings after Anna had left. She deserved a little peace from him, it was his obligation to give it to her. Elijah's tone became soft and serious, dropping his head down to try and catch Kol's eye. "Don't you think it's been long enough?"

Kol sipped his drink, making a face at the poor quality of the alcohol and a bit because Elijah was a bore. "Are we going to have this conversation every time we get together?" he asked with faux cheer, grinning brightly at his brother. "Do I have to remind you what happened last time?"

Rebekah rolled her eyes as she picked her nails, listening to their conversation despite her nonparticipation. Even after all this time, she was still cross with him for compelling Anna.

"Why do we invite him again?" she asked Elijah casually, ignoring the affronted look Kol sent her. "You have a better chance of Nik magically un-desicating himself then of Kol admitting any sort of fault."

"I _wasn't_ wrong," snapped Kol, practically snarling when Rebekah shot him a dry, unimpressed look over her shoulder. "Rebekah, you don't have any idea what-"

"I thought we weren't talking about it?" commented Elijah smugly, lifting a glass of wine to his lips and smirking around the lip. Kol turned his glare onto him, keeping silent for a moment before shaking his head and standing up.

"If all you two are going to do is make me sit here and talk about Anna, then I'm leaving."

Rebekah and Elijah both started protesting at him; Rebekah went so far as to grab his wrist to try and pull him back into his seat, and Elijah stole his coat. He held it hostage while Rebekah pouted up at him. "Don't be an ass, Kol, just stay," she insisted, tugging him hard one final time. Kol rolled his eyes and pulled his wrist from her hand, shaking his head as he sat back down with all the grace and class he possessed. Elijah nodded, satisfied, and tossed Kol's coat back across the chair, far less haphazardly than Kol originally had; Rebekah was still staring at him though, more seriously now.

"Kol...Kol if you're really so upset to talk about her then maybe it is time you try to find her."

"Shush, Rebekah, if he doesn't want to talk about it after 90 years then we wont," this was said with a pointed look at Kol, who grinned pleasantly and kicked Elijah in the shin.

Rebekah looked between her two brothers silently for a moment; pushing her chair back, she shook her head and sighed. "I need a drink," she muttered, flicking Kol in the ear as she passed him. "Try not to kill anyone while I'm gone."

"A hollow promise even if we made it, sister," Kol called after her, grinning as he turned back to Elijah. "Can we talk about something more...mannered?"

Elijah hummed around his wine glass, nodding as he set it down and laid his arm across the tabletop. "Just until Rebekah comes back. I don't want her to figure out that we actually get along."

"Then we'd have to do these little get together's more often," agreed Kol, an actual smile crossing his face. "I assume you've spoken with Caroline? How was Bonnie's funeral?"

Elijah lifted a shoulder. "Caroline did a beautiful job, as expected. I saw Jeremy and Elena there, he said he'd spoken to you recently?"

"Eh, I have a soft spot for him," said Kol casually, glancing off with a slight shrug. "He entertains me, at least."

Elijah smirked around his wine glass, his eyes sliding over Kol's shoulder for a moment. The younger Miklaeson watched him blink and abruptly set down his glass, his eyes widening a fraction as whatever he was staring at-

"_Look_ at who I found." Kol perked at the sound of Rebekah's voice behind him, twisting around in his seat, hoping maybe she'd brought someone for them to snack on. Instead he froze; his eyes falling down the figure Rebekah had plastered to her side. She lifted her hand in an awkward hello, a thin smile on her lips as her eyes slid over Kol completely and onto Elijah.

"Uh...I'm Anna."

Kol was still staring at her rudely, and she in turn, ignored him. He briefly wondered if it was him or his compulsion that was putting her off. He snapped out of his funk with a snarl, glaring at Rebekah as he pushed himself out of his chair. That seemed to get Anna's attention, and she blinked at him in surprise, causing him to pause in his lean to grab his coat.

"Elijah," said his brother quickly, standing up and reaching across the table to shake Anna's hand. She did so with a quick quirk of her lips before turning her eyes back onto Kol again. "And my younger brother Kol."

Anna nodded, looking uncomfortable for a moment before she turned her head up to look at Rebekah. "I still don't know what I'm doing here. Can you let me go now?"

"No," the blonde snapped back simply, pushing her into the direction of Rebekah's abandoned seat. Anna grimaced at the manhandling, eyeing Elijah strangely as Rebekah slide around to the opposite side of the table and shoved Kol back into his chair with equal force before plopping down next to him and preventing him from taking his coat back.

He could _easily_ leave without it...but he liked that coat, and he'd never hear the end of it from Rebekah if he just up and left. Besides, he thought as he turned to look at Anna out of the corner of his eye, maybe he missed the brunette more than he thought he had. Just seeing her again made him feel less cranky with his siblings.

"So Anna, how have the last 90 years treated you?" asked Rebekah bluntly, earning looks from her brothers while Anna just raised an eyebrow at her from across the table and folded her hands in her lap.

"Should I even be a little surprised that the Original vampire's know who I am?" asked Anna boredly, looking at Elijah. He grinned politely at her, but the smile melted off his face when she looked away; rolling his eyes he managed to very subtly pick up one of the toothpicks lying on the table and stab his sister in the thigh with it, shooting her a contemptuous look as he did.

"Probably not, darling," said Kol, smiling tightly at her as he folded his arms across the table and leaned into them. Anna blinked at him, the same strange expression she had on her face when Elijah introduced her to him.

"Do I know you?" she asked, her eyebrows pulling together innocently. Kol felt Rebekah shift in her chair and resisted the urge to kick her. He grinned at Anna, shaking his head.

"You'd remember a face like mine, I'm sure." Anna hn'd and looked away, reaching up to fiddle with something around her neck. Kol swallowed, his gaze zeroing on the very familiar leather tied around her neck.

He was some sort of idiot for leaving her in possession with something he'd given her. Elijah raised an eyebrow at him, obviously thinking along the same lines as he was. He laid an arm across the table and turned toward Anna, pointing at her hand. "That looks quite old. Where did you get it?"

Kol could have killed the older man as Anna's eyebrows shot up, her necklace falling from her hand in surprise. "Oh...um, I'm actually not sure," she admitted sheepishly. "One day i just had it."

"Really?" muttered Rebekah, glancing at Kol. "How strange."

"Do you have many lapses in your memory?" asked Elijah in that same fake interested tone. Anna's shoulders dropped as she stared at him suspiciously, and Kol felt himself warming to the idea that maybe she had the same feelings for them all, even if she didn't know why.

"Why do you ask?"

"No reason," said Elijah quickly, glancing at Kol, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. "It's just that Kol used to experience something similar."

Kol could have killed him as Anna's head snapped around to stare at him in surprise. "Really?" she asked with interest, staring at his profile carefully for a moment before she met his eyes. "I thought the Original's were infallible."

"I got into a bit of trouble with a witch," said Kol, turning to Anna; he lifted a hand nonchalantly. "But that was a long time ago. Nothing Mystic Falls couldn't fix."

Anna snorted. "I haven't been in Mystic Falls in almost a century. Hate it there, always have."

"Really?" asked Kol, leaning forward as his interest was peaked. "Bad memories?"

"My mother died there." the expression on Kol's face melted off and he blinked across at her for a moment. He had _no_ idea that Pearl had died...or considered that her death had been the reason Anna was in Mystic Falls when he'd shown up. He was still reeling as Anna shrugged, leaning her elbows on the table as she spoke to him. "I stayed for a little while, out of obligation or something. I mean I spent over a hundred and fifty years waiting for her-"

"I'm sorry," interrupted Kol without thinking, cutting off Anna, who stared at him with her mouth hanging open mid-sentence. "I didn't know."

Shooting him a quizzical look, Anna cocked her head to the side. "Why would you have known?"

He was worse at pretending they didn't know each other than she had been, and she'd really sucked at it. Kol glanced down, shaking his head and taking a drink. "I didn't. That's why I said it."

Anna opened and closed her mouth a few times, before she finally shut it and turned her head away, staring at the table in confusion for a moment. Kol glanced up to glare at his siblings, but found them both too absorbed in their own conversation to be bothered by his. Sighing inwardly, Kol leaned back in his chair, taking an opportunity to look at Anna. After nearly a century she still looked the same, dark clothes and long wavy hair with her many bangles and rings and too many piercings in her ears (though thought may have been new...he couldn't be sure); he had convinced himself that giving her a clean slate was the best thing for her - that the role reversal would help him understand why she would have stayed with him without a second thought after so long - and had somehow backed himself into a corner where he didn't want anything to do with her.

It was supposed to be temporary; it was starting to turn permanent.

Kol cleared his throat, pushing his chair back and standing smoothly, catching Anna's eye and sparing her a slight smile. "It was nice to meet you Annabelle," he said, turning to Rebekah and snapping at her in silent demand for his coat. She handed it over, looking torn, and pouted at Elijah as if he could make their brother stay. "See you both later?"

Elijah raised a hand, digging a slip of paper out of his pocket and handing it over; Kol quirked an eyebrow, flipping it over and finding an address scrawled on it. "If you have nothing pressing to get to, why don't you stay with us for a bit? Like old times?"

Kol smirked at the gestured, flicking his eyes up at meet Elijah's. "Planning on breaking open Nik's coffin, finally?"

"The idea crossed my mind."

Kol made a face, nodding. "We'll see."

He left without another word or a look back, but he could feel eyes on his back as he went.

.

By the time Kol actually decided to pay a visit to the address his brother had given him, it was well into the night and he'd come up with zero excuse as to why he'd decided to stay with them. When Elijah answered the door, all Kol did was shrug and shoulder his way inside, tossing a pack of playing cards at Rebekah's forehead and pouring himself a glass of wine before either of them had a chance to even say hello.

After that, it was just like old times.

"-I thought sixes were wild?"

"We're not playing Uno?" asked Rebekah in bewilderment, frowning over the top of her cards at Elijah as he groped blinding for the wine bottle, glasses forgotten. Kol snorted and batted his brother's hand away, taking a long drink from the bottle and handing it over when he was finished.

"Does anyone know what we're actually playing anymore?"

"I thought-"

Elijah's snort cut off Rebekah's confusion in tandem with a sharp knock on the door. All three of them sobered, turning to look across the foryer. Rebekah's lower lip jutted out, glancing at each of her brother's while they just stared at the door. Someone knocked again.

"Kol, get the door," ordered Elijah, his voice overly haughty. His eyes danced with mirth, proof to how drunk and relaxed he was, as Kol climbed to his feet; he listened to Rebekah flop back against the couch, grumbling about giving up and starting over as Kol jogged to the front door as whoever it was on the other side knocked impatiently again.

"Yes, yes, keep your knickers-" Kol's voice faltered as he pulled open the door, blinking down at Anna, with her hair raised to knock. She lowered her arm jerkily, her eyes darting around him briefly. Kol relaxed into the door, feeling a grin spread across his face at the sight of her. "Anna."

"You know my name." Kol blinked at her, his eyes narrowing slightly in amusement because duh he sort of just said it.

"We met earlier," he chuckled. He nodded inside the house, taking a step away from the door. "Wanna come inside? We're all just-"

Anna's hand shot out, dragging him back to the doorway by his sleeve and cutting off his invitation in. He frowned down at the serious expression on her face, shaking his arm out of her grip when she refused to let go. "You knew my name," she said again, but smacked her hand against the doorframe when he rolled his eyes and made to turn away. "My_ full_ name," she clarified. "When you left the bar, you called me Annabelle; and I don't go by that name."

"Oh shit," whispered Kol under his breath, pulling back slightly. Anna leveled her gaze, a determination in her eyes that Kol personally knew very well. Her curiosity had been piqued, and she would hold on until she'd been satisfied.

"You know me," she said firmly, it wasn't even a question. "And I...I should know you too, _I know_ I should." the _'I can feel it'_ left hanging between them, unspoken. Kol swallowed, feeling nauseated.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Kol lightly, shrugged. The curiosity and determination on her face was briefly replaced by annoyance, but it didn't last long. Anna's eyes narrowed back at him, running her tongue over her lip as she shifted on her feet.

"Yes, you do," she said. "And I'm definitely not leaving until you tell me."

Behind him, Kol heard Elijah sigh. "I give up; they're obviously soulmates."

He rolled his eyes, and Rebekah squealed in delight. Something crashed, but Kol didn't dare turn around to see what damage had been caused, busy as he was staring at Anna's impassive face. "You don't wanna know," he said, lowering his voice and leaning closer to her. "Trust me."

Anna stepped closer, drawing herself up to her full height (which wasn't much) and propping one hand on her hip. "You totally just dug yourself a grave," she said, just as softly, quirking an eyebrow at him. "I wanna know. I'm not going anywhere until I do."

"Anna-"

"Kol."

Biting his lower lip, Kol glanced over his shoulder; both of his siblings had disappeared, which was annoying. He turned back to find that Anna's gaze had softened, her eyes falling to his lips briefly. "I know you..." she breathed, taking another step toward him. "I know I do."

Kol couldn't help it, he leaned closer to her. He was selfish and he missed her; he wanted to punish himself for making her wait for him. Anna reached for him, her fingertips ghosting across the front of his shirt when he pulled away abruptly, leaving her looking startled by his disappearance; something he really hoped wasn't sadness flashed across her face. "I'm not someone you want to remember, love," said Kol.

"Fuck that," breathed Anna, pushing herself into the house and making Kol step back. "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't know." This time he didn't move when she stopped in front of him, craning her head back to stare up at him. "I didn't know I was missing something until I saw you tonight. How fucking cheesy is that?" she asked absently, shaking her head. "You messed up when you called me Annabelle, it's only fair that you put everything back where it belongs."

Oh and did he want to. His resolve to keep her in the dark was slowly slipping away; this was enough, right? To know what she'd gone through, this was fine? Kol reached for her face, touching her cheek briefly before wrapping his hand the back of her head and holding her still. He kept silent, like he could, and reversed his compulsion over her; pulling away when he was done and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Anna was silent, her eyes unfocused as she (well, he assumed; he'd never actually been compelled before, so it could have been a completely different experience) remembered him. Ninety years wasn't that long, for their relationship it wasn't even significant; they'd spent more time being apart in their marriage then they had spent together.

Finally, Anna blinked. "You..." she started dumbly, looking flabbergasted. Kol was prepared for a bit of yelling, maybe a slap or a kick in the shin, but he was startled when Anna reached out with both hands and dragged him toward her by the front of his shirt, rising up on her toes to meet him. The tip of her nose bumped against the underside of his jaw before he had time to lean his head down; Anna was smiling, stupidly, just like she had been when he'd erased her memories of him, and she shook her head gently. "You are an _idiot._"

Kol's face split into a grin, pulling his hands out of his pockets and resting them on her waist. "You're not angry with me?"

"I'll be angry at you later," said Anna, her voice catching on her words. "Right now I just want you to kiss me."

"I love you, Anna."

"Love you too, idiot," she snapped, rolling her eyes. She pressed her lips against his quickly, but before she could pull away completely, Kol slid his hand up her back and tightened his grip on her waist; kissing her back. Anna relaxed against him, loosening her grip on his shirt and sliding her arms around his neck. His eyes fluttered open when he felt her pull away, but she didn't try to move out of his arms, which he took as a good sign. "Don't _ever_ make me forget you again, Kol," she warned him, brushing her fingers along the side of his neck.

Shaking his head, Kol lifted the corner of his mouth into a half smile. "Never."

"Do you promise?"

"Forever."


End file.
